They all collect and arrange into a protein membrane and feed energy into the bacterium's metabolism. With this model, I can show how nature has molded a certain class of proteins to turn them into an apparatus that is uniquely effective in absorbing photons from the sun, conserving that energy and transporting it to certain points where other proteins take over the energy and use it. It provides us with a good example of the specialties within living systems. There are parts that can self-organize into very complex structures, and that ability is very distinct in organic systems. His model is based on one of life's smallest systems.
Purple bacteria live in the mud below surface plants.
They are scavengers, feeding on bits, or photons, of sunlight that are not claimed by the plants. The carotenoids also play bodyguard to the chlorophylls and protect them from oxygen. But by having sufficient biological data, you can know that you are modeling correctly. In our case, the data without modeling could not be interpreted, but with the modeling we could complete a clear and correct structure of the light-harvesting protein. But on the other side of the coin, something that works beautifully also can go wrong, and when it does you can have a lot of damage.