Photosynthesis is still a mystery—but science is revealing unknown steps. Most plants split water molecules to generate energy, and now we have a clearer picture of exactly how they do it.

For photosynthesis, one photon is all it takes. Only a single particle of light is required to spark the first steps of the biological process that converts light into chemical energy, scientists ...

Second, in the Calvin cycle or “ light-independent reaction ” (because it doesn’t require photons), ATP and NADPH join forces with carbon dioxide. After a few mind-numbing steps, this reaction makes ...

Chemistry Decades-old mystery about photosynthesis finally solved. It takes just four particles of light to jump-start photosynthesis in a plant’s cells, but the details of what exactly happens ...

Photosynthesis is the process plants, algae and some bacteria use to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

A new study has tugged photosynthesis research in an interesting new direction, with a team at Sweden’s Lund University demonstrating how carefully spaced mirrors can be used to trap light and ...

I HAVE proposed1 that coherent storage of absorbed light energy in optically non-active modes may be important in photosynthesis. For in this way energy could be transferred to electrons ...

Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that modifications to the process of photosynthesis or to the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to ...

It’s very easy to lose a single photon. That’s why it’s so impressive that photosynthetic systems rarely do. In contrast to photovoltaic cells, which currently top out at around 30 percent ...

To study photosynthesis, scientists needed to set up an situation that would allow them to stimulate the light-absorbing proteins and observe any quantum mechanical effects that ensued.