Latest Photosynthesis Stories
National Science Foundation Scientists find surprising new answers in wetlands such as the Everglades Scientists have uncovered one of nature's long-kept secrets--the true fate of charcoal in the world's soils. The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change. However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it's...
Brown University A "garden variety" leaf is a broad, flat structure, but if the garden happens to be somewhere arid, it probably includes succulent plants with plump leaves full of precious water. Fat leaves did not emerge in the plant world easily. A new Brown University study published in Current Biology reports that to sustain efficient photosynthesis, they required the evolution of a fundamental remodeling of leaf vein structure: the addition of a third dimension. Leaves, after all,...
University of Toronto Pigments found in plants and purple bacteria employed to provide protection from sun damage do more than just that. Researchers from the University of Toronto and University of Glasgow have found that they also help to harvest light energy during photosynthesis. Carotenoids, the same pigments which give orange color to carrots and red to tomatoes, are often found together in plants with chlorophyll pigments that harvest solar energy. Their main function is...
California Institute of Technology Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory believe they can now explain one of the remaining mysteries of photosynthesis, the chemical process by which plants convert sunlight into usable energy and generate the oxygen that we breathe. The finding suggests a new way of approaching the design of catalysts that drive the water-splitting reactions of artificial photosynthesis. "If we want to...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists writing in the journal Science say they have found the first direct evidence of life in the deeply buried oceanic crust. Researchers on board the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's (IODP) research vessel JOIDES Resolution drilled a water depth of 1.5 miles and hundreds of feet of sediment into the oceanic crust off the west coast of North America. After examining rock samples from this depth, they were able to uncover...
A European consortium develops a novel technology to monitor and control harmful algae blooms. ZOETERMEER, The Netherlands, March 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The patented LG Sonic MPC ensures fast and efficient algae control by combining online water quality monitoring, telemetering and ultrasonic technologies to provide the state-of-the-art treatment against algae and cyanobacteria in ponds, lakes and dams. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130314/CG77499) Under the...
- NR is a Newly Discovered Vitamin and is a Natural Metabolite of Niacin (Vitamin B3) - IRVINE, Calif., March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ChromaDex Corporation(®) (OTCQB: CDXC), an innovative natural products company that provides proprietary, science-based solutions and ingredients to the dietary supplement, food & beverage, animal health, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, and marketer of its branded, patented pterostilbene, pTeroPure(®), announced today it has...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers at Stanford University and the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used an X-ray laser to get a glimpse of photosynthesis in action. Using the laser, they were able to look at the structure and chemical behavior of a natural catalyst involved in photosynthesis. "This method opens up the way to study changes going on in the catalytic cycle of the water oxidation in nature," Junko Yano, a chemist...
LA JOLLA, Calif., Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Doctors currently struggle to determine whether a breast tumor is likely to shift into an aggressive, life-threatening mode--an issue with profound implications for treatment. Now a group from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has identified a mechanism through which mitochondria, the powerhouses of a cell, control tumor aggressiveness. Based on their findings, the team developed a simple treatment that inhibits cancer...
Emissions from coal power stations could be drastically reduced by a new, energy-efficient material that adsorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, then releases it when exposed to sunlight. In a study published today in Angewandte Chemie, Monash University and CSIRO scientists for the first time discovered a photosensitive metal organic framework (MOF) - a class of materials known for their exceptional capacity to store gases. This has created a powerful and cost-effective new tool to...
