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Using ultrafast imaging of moving energy in photosynthesis, scientists have determined the speed of crucial processes for the first time.
This should help scientists understand how nature has perfected the process of photosynthesis, and how this might be copied to produce fuels by artificial photosynthesis.
During photosynthesis, plants harvest light and, though a chemical process involving water and carbon dioxide, convert this into fuel for life.
A vital part of this process is using the light energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. This is done by an enzyme called Photosystem II. Light energy is harvested by 'antennae', and transferred to the reaction centre of Photosystem II, which strips electrons from water. This conversion of excitation energy into chemical energy, known as 'charge separation', is the first step in splitting water.
It was previously thought that the process of charge separation in the reaction centre was a 'bottleneck' in photosynthesis - the slowest step in the process - rather than the transfer of energy along the antennae.
Marius Kaucikas, Karim Maghlaoui, Jim Barber, Thomas Renger and Jasper J van Thor, Ultrafast infrared observation of exciton equilibration from oriented single crystals of photosystem II will be published in Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS13977
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29 2016, @02:00PM
This strategy will work in the short term, but we need to engage in long term thinking here. I propose that Uber should begin preparing for the future after peak poor person by innovating automated poor person robots. In the future, robots will fill the role of consumers, buying useless shit and filling landfills with it.