About 2.5 billion years ago, a pigment called chlorophyll appeared in single-celled organisms, allowing them to capture energy in the form of light and convert it into sugars. This biochemical trick, ...

Scientists see massive potential in the possibility of manipulating or mimicking the natural process of photosynthesis, which could lead to new forms of clean fuel, ways to soak up carbon dioxide or ...

Light supplies the energy plants need to build up biomass. A research team is researching how plants adapt their photosynthesis to changing light. They describe a key molecular mechanism that ...

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 ...

A research team from the University of Basel, Switzerland, has developed a new molecule modeled on plant photosynthesis: under the influence of light, it stores two positive and two negative charges ...

Using cryogenic electron microscopy, a research team has revealed, for the first time, the structures and binding environments of pigments bound to a protein called a photosynthetic antenna of the ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

Photosynthesis in plants and a few bacteria is responsible for feeding nearly all life on Earth. It allows energy from the Sun to be converted into a storable form, usually glucose, which plants use ...

Photosynthesis slows down or stops if the conditions aren’t sufficient enough. Play this game to see how a seed or a plant is affected by changing how much water, sunlight and carbon dioxide it gets.

The basis of all life on Earth is photosynthesis. So, what happens if it is disrupted? Today, advanced measurement tools can reveal how climate change is affecting plants' ability to process the ...

Figure 1: Composite diel cycles show that photosynthesis and daytime respiration at the Harvard Forest are less than predicted in the first half of the growing season. Figure 2: Composite seasonal ...