ALIEN COLLECTION

"Alien" is a collection of macro photos of Cladonia Stellaris lichens, captured in the forest of Huskvarna, Sweden, in 2021. All the images in the collection are as they were captured. I didn't draw or create anything in the photos, I just added some colors and made them more contrasty and bright to reveal my emotions about these tiny organisms. Lichens, our otherworldly-looking neighbors on Earth, are frequently overlooked by humans. Meanwhile, they are wonderful! Their patterns and otherworldly look, their impressive survival abilities, and the intriguing story of their appearance make lichens worth learning about! ​Gorgeous and mystical lichens—who are they? I am trying to answer this question in this "Alien" collection, speaking about specific qualities of lichens and facts about them through photography. WHAT ARE LICHENS? Lichens are neither plants nor animals, they are organisms unlike any other on Earth. The lichen is an organism created by the symbiosis of the algae cells and the fungus. The algae produce food through photosynthesis, and the fungus protects the algae and provides nutrients and water for their combined survival. The collaboration is so good that it allows lichens to survive where many other organisms cannot, even in open space! ​ ENDURE THE OPEN SPACE In an experiment led by Leopoldo Sancho from the Complutense University of Madrid, two species of lichen were sealed in a capsule and launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket on May 31, 2005. Once in Earth orbit, the lid of the capsule opened, and the samples were exposed to the space environment for nearly 15 days before the lid was resealed and the capsule returned to Earth. Lichens survived! This experiment adds weight to the theory of panspermia—that life could somehow be transported between planets, perhaps by hitching a ride on an asteroid. It also indicates that organisms similar to lichens might be able to survive on the surface of Mars—at least during the planet’s summer. ON THE BORDER WITH THE DREAMS I used to fantasize about lichens coming from another planet because of their otherworldly and charming appearance. And suddenly these dreamy ideas about lichens as aliens have a chance to come true! Isn't it a moment when the border between the dream and reality is blurring? ​ INTRIGUING LICHENS Lichens don't have roots, they get their nutrition from the air. This ability allows them to settle even on the bare rocks of the Arctic, using rocks for fixation. In the course of their lives, lichens corrode the colonized substance and accumulate minerals and organic matter, creating the first soil for such plants as mosses and grasses. Such a sequence of life events made lichens one of the first eukaryotes to step out from the water onto land and create more hospitable settings for vascular plants. For over a century, scientists held this view of the evolutionary process. But nowadays, another point of view starts to appear. In the publications dated 2019, it is written that the last research has shown that lichens are younger and evolved with or after vascular plants. Here I like to remember about their space journey and panspermia! Who knows…  ALIEN Even if lichens were not the first to emerge from the water onto land, they are often the first to settle on a bare stone to create conditions for the next species. They are still aliens from this side—pioneers in a new land! They are definitely worth seeing!