Well, let’s take a look why our little green friend is, well, green. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this character, it is a famous jedi master from Star Wars. Please go and watch Star Wars, then return.
The rest of us, let’s find out! I want to take this opportunity and also explain to you how other green animals retain this colour, bit about photosynthesis and I want to talk about Yodas biology as well… :D
It's going to be fun!
According to Star Wars Wikipedia, Yoda belongs to ancient and mysterious species. Members of this species are small, green-skinned creatures with long pointed ears. They also have three-fingered clawed paws and are able to live for hundreds of years. What can this tell us about Yoda in biological context?
Well, it is hard to say whether Yoda is warm- or cold-blooded. But he does have hair and ear whiskers and stuff. On the other hand, he also poseses these dino-like paws, so he is probably something like lizard-mammal-weirdo. He has to have some kind of very slow metabolism or some unique cells, because such a long life-span is something quite uncommon (at least here on Earth).
But now to the big question, why is he green? Well in the nature green colour in animals poses as form of camouflage to blend in with leaves and grass. It is present in lizards, amphibians, birds, etc. But green is also sign of presence of complex chemical called chlorophyll that is essential for photosynthesis in plants. Maybe Yodas enormous lifespan is due to something like this.
Now I would like to explain both phenomena – green pigmentation in animals and chlorophyll/photosynthesis as well.
In cannon retelling of Star Wars Episode V by Adam Gidwitz, Luke Skywalker calls Yoda “little swamp frog”. So, we can stick to that and use frogs as an example to explain how they can maintain their green colour. Basically, three types of layered pigment cells, called chromatophores, work together to make a frog (or maybe Yoda) green.
They form the bottom layer and contain melanin, that appears dark or black. Melanin is present in humans as well.
These guys form the middle layer and are basically tiny cellular mirrors. Sunlight penetrates through the skin to these mirrors and is the light that is reflected is blue in colour.
Reflected blue light from iridophores travels to the top layer of cells termed xanthophores. These fellas contain yellowish pigments, so the the light that filters through them appears green to human eye.
Now let’s head to another hypothesis. Yoda is a photosynthetic lizard-mammal-something and has chlorophyll in his skin. What is chlorophyll and why is it green?
Chlorophyll is the main component of chloroplasts – organelles responsible for photosynthesis in plants (and other organisms). It has the ability to capture energy from sunlight and this energy is then stored (due to series of chemical reactions) in the form of carbohydrates, such as sugars. That is the basic principle of photosynthesis (and the by-product of this process is oxygen).
Why does it appear green in colour? Well, chlorophyll is great at capturing blue and red wavelenghs of light, but not so good at capturing green light. Thus, plants are mainly reflecting this “green” wavelengths and as a result appear green in colour.
Now now, there is this very interesting slug called Elysia chlorotica. This GREEN sea slug that looks like weird leaf has one peculiarity – it is photosynthetic. This is due to its diet- algae. They eat algae and then use chloroplasts from them to get energy from sun. Yeah, solar-powered slugs are real. Amazing right?! Sooo, maybe this is the reason why Yoda is green- due to his algae diet! Who knows. But at least the concept of photosynthetic complex eukaryotic organism isn’t that alien or foreign. See the video bellow, if you are interested in this slug! :)
Sooo, hopefully you all did learn more about this relevant scientific problem and can avoid awkward questions to master Yoda, such as: Why are you green, dude?
In the future I would like to dwell onto similar scientific questions, so please, leave your suggestions/feedback in the comments!
Have a great day! And try to follow, upvote and stuff. No. Do it. There is no try! :D
Yoda's species – article on Wookieepedia
Green – article on Wikipedia
Why are frogs green? – article on livescience.com
Elysia chlorotica – article on Wikipedia
Yoda-speak – amazing and funny site
