In oceans, light is abundant at the surface while nutrients are predominantly found deeper in the water column. This generates an evolutionary pressure for algae to regulate their vertical positioning in the water column either by swimming or by changing their size and density, which define the gravitational sinking of a cell. This image, captured by scanning electron microscopy, illustrates how an individual algal cell of the species Tetraselmis sp. looks as it navigates the vastness of our oceans. Our work has revealed that this species becomes more massive and denser when it is starving for nutrients. This counterintuitive behavior of increasing mass when starved allows the cells to sink faster to deeper ocean where nutrients are more abundant.