A major breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions and convert them into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Developed by scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley, the system uses […]
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report boosting plants’ ability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast, the part of the plant where photosynthesis takes place. The new field of “plant nanobionics” could, according to the research team, create plants with enhanced energy production that are […]
Using the largest dated evolutionary tree of flowering plants ever assembled, new research suggests how plants developed traits to withstand low temperatures, with implications that human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than initially thought to global agriculture. The new study appearing in the journalNature, shows many angiosperms (flowering plants) evolved mechanisms to cope […]
Using ultrafast spectroscopy, scientists have observed what happens at the subatomic level during the very first stage of photosynthesis and uncovered a much more fundamental interaction than had previously been considered possible. The researchers, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Notre Dame, have published their findings in the […]
The development of clean solar power may hinge on scientists being able to unravel the mysteries of photosynthesis, the process by which green plants convert sunlight into electrochemical energy. To this end, US researchers have recorded the first observation and characterization of quantum entanglement in photosynthesis. Previous experiments led by Berkeley Lab’s Graham Fleming (right […]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. They used a modified virus as a “biological scaffold” that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The new […]
A computer model of a plant that mimics the process of evolution produces more leaves and fruit without needing extra fertilizer. The University of Illinois researchers who designed the in silico plant say that theirs is the first computer model to simulate every step of the photosynthetic process. Researcher Steve Long said that the research […]
Photosynthesis’ amazingly efficient conversion of solar energy into chemical energy relies on sunlight being converted almost instantaneously, but how this speedy energy transfer actually happens has been a long-standing mystery. Now, researchers from Berkeley Lab say that quantum mechanical effects may be at the heart of the process. Using femtosecond scale electronic spectroscopy measurements, the […]
Plants are extremely efficient at taking carbon dioxide from the air and converting it into biomass using light as an energy source. Now, chemists may be a step closer to replicating photosynthesis, thanks to a novel catalyst identified by German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces. Being able to use plain […]
