The Earth’s ecosystems dwell in our gaze

Abstract

Have you ever imagined that empty cells could exist? They do and they live inside your eyes. In the eye lens, some cells choose to get rid of their internal machinery so they can become transparent and help form the images we see. This process, in which cells eliminate their machinery, creates a scenario inside the lens that is very similar to what we see in nature: very different landscapes, ranging from highly diverse ones such as forests or tropical rainforests, to austere environments like an icy desert. These places, even if they seem empty, are not truly empty. They fulfill special functions and exist for a purpose. What appears to be empty is not always boring and, sometimes, it is exactly what we need in order to see clearly.