Travel Deep Inside a Leaf - Annotated Version | California Academy of Sciences

Please turn on subtitles with the CC (Closed Captions) button to see the explanatory annotations designed for educators.

Transcript of closed captions:

0:05: We are approaching a redwood tree. To animate a scientifically accurate leaf, artists studied the texture of a redwood leaf specimen on a glass slide at high resolution. They even counted the stomata, and used that exact count for this film!

0:25: These leaves would be measured on a centimeter scale. Throughout the animation, we will gradually zoom in to smaller scales.

0:40: As we approach a single stoma, we are now on a millimeter scale.

0:48: As we enter the interior of the leaf, we see many individual palisade cells. These cells are where photosynthesis takes place; they are translucent to allow sunlight to enter.

1:00: As we approach a single palisade cell, we’ll zoom down to the micrometer scale. The shapes inside the cell are organelles: the bright globules at the bottom are the Golgi apparatus; the yellow spotted tubes are endoplasmic reticulum studded with ribosomes.

1:09: That large, blue membrane surrounds the nucleus; the purple blobs are mitochondria.

1:18: The faint, yellow, spider-web structure of the cytoskeleton provides structure and support to the cell.

1:24: You are about to enter a chloroplast; inside you see flat, pancake-like membranous structures called thylakoids. This is where the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis take place to produce ATP, the cell’s energy carrier molecule. way

1:38: The time scale has changed: the molecules are shown moving 1 million times slower than in real life!

1:42: As we near an individual thylakoid, the animation scale continues to shrink down to the molecular level, where things are measured in nanometers.

1:52: The green and blue bush-like structures are photosystems: clusters of proteins that absorb light energy from the sun and help convert it into the chemical energy that’s stored in the bonds of the energy carrier molecule called ATP.

2:03: The yellow-green, rotating structure is an enzyme called ATP synthase. This molecular machine facilitates the flow of protons down their concentration gradient from one side of the thylakoid membrane to the other, using the energy released in the process to assemble ATP.

2:16: The pulses of light in the thylakoid membrane in which the photosystems are embedded represent energized electrons being passed from one photosystem to another, passing along the energy which will be stored in the bonds of ATP (the classic “bucket brigade”).

2:26: The small “wigglies” are ATP molecules. Living things store energy in the bonds of the ATP molecules and then use that energy to conduct all the processes of life.

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The California Academy of Sciences is a renowned scientific and educational institution dedicated to exploring, explaining, and sustaining life on Earth. Based in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, it's the only place in the world to house an aquarium, planetarium, rainforest, and natural history museum—plus cutting-edge research programs—all under one living roof.

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[Nikita-vrut]

Props to the cameraman who went inside the leaf and filmed it just for us truly remarkable!

[sayantanbhattacharyy]

Now imagine someone in the universe watching us like this right now with their magnifying glass.

[moonstonepearl]

Wonderous. This video pulls your attention right in and keeps it the whole time. It's amazing how there is this entire world on the microscopic level that we are just beginning to discover.

[nucleusmedicalmedia]

This is AMAZING! Would love to collaborate with you on YouTube. 🙂

[peachymango_]

The worm like thing is high energy Adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP for short) and the spinning mushroom thingy is ATP synthase. The green stacks thingy is the Thylakoid membrane which contains Electron transport chain for pumping protons from the stroma into the thylakoid space.

[MichaelHarrisIreland]

Absolutely amazing. When they told me Santa wasn't true I thought magic had left the world. How could have known that 50 years later there would be more magic in the world than I could have dreamed of.

[goutamdutta]

How much the person had fascinated by watching this first time .
We can't imagine the process how the little things around us have made with how much minute objects.

[Tny]

can't imagine why someone would dislike this vid, it's beautiful and educational

[anakraljic]

Am I the only one who got chills watching this? It's fascinating

[chayito]

So beautiful!! THANK YOU!! I'd never see the leaves the same way!! I am so honor and lucky to be a member of the Academy Science Museum. Nothing can compare to this gem. I spend my birthdays there. Especially, the rainforest and the films at the planetarium.

[pyrrhat]

And some deny the intelligence and power behind all this. This truly admirable demonstration of power and art exhibition, from nanoscales to gigascales cannot be without creator.

[giancarloscorrea]

00:07 The accuracy and detail of the redwood trees is impressive, artists viewed the specimen under a microscope to accurately animate this video.
00:21 Overall the rendering on this animation is so realistic and beautiful, but I appreciate the extra detail in adding the ants.
01:18 The cytoskeleton animation is very subtle but I was able to identify it quickly and relate it to the function it is performing in the leaf.
01:34 The thylakoids look just like macaroons stacked on top of each other.
01:39 It is fascinating that the molecules shown flying by are actually flying by a million times faster in real life.
02:05 The rotation of the ATP synthase properly illustrates the job it is performing to facilitate the flow of protons.
02:27 The ATP molecules are so tiny in comparison to the other components in the leaf but they arguably perform the most important function of storing energy.

[xiomaraordonez]

The best animation i've ever seen, i am so grateful for those who maked this possible, continue doing this please!!❤❤❤

[konijntjewiebel]

Very realistic representation! Especially the soft opera music playing inside the leaf

[lifewriter]

Wonderful, absolutely fascinating. Everything is in constant movement, energizing it all into pure life. So vibrant and alive.

[merladyneptune]

Beautiful... As A Biologist & Teacher, cant thank you guys enough! This is great for everyone especially students, wonderful job, keep it up! I love this so much 💚💚💚

[IslandZer]

Who ever your social media or marketing director is please create more contents like this. This is pretty fascinating

[marcschafers]

I keep thinking about biologists from 100 years ago watching this video in utter amazement. Wow. Fantastic education here! Thanks!

[atdhope]

I'm watching it again and again....lm feeling peace...great animation.♥️♥️♥️

[funny-video-YouTube-channel]

Like a SciFi city within a plant :-)

*Wonderful animation.* The children of today are so lucky to have access to superb learning material !