From Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, April 12, 2007:
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/...m-secrets.html
"Quantum Secrets of Photosynthesis Revealed"
BERKELEY, CA -Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria
are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for
conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency.
Speed is the key - the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost
instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis
achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing
mystery that may have finally been solved.
Scientific American has a news summary about this research:
http://tinyurl.com/25sfdl
or
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...4&chanID=sa003
As does the journal Nature (in which the full article will be
published). "Knowing how plants and bacteria harvest light for
photosynthesis so efficiently could provide a clean solution to
mankind's energy requirements. The secret, it seems, may be the
coherent application of quantum principles....":
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...l/446740a.html
PhysicsWeb also has a piece:
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/4/10/1
Quite interesting....
--
Brett
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