Latest Photosystem Stories

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 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...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For almost three decades, scientists have tried to identify a particular enzyme involved in regulating electron transport during photosynthesis. Now, a research team from Ludwig Maximilians Universitat (LMU) has found the missing link, which turns out to be not so new. All life on Earth is sustained by photosynthesis, a sunlight powered process that provides energy-rich compounds and the molecular oxygen that higher organisms depend...

Research on the Water Oxidation Reaction in Plants and Bacteria Helps Solve an Important Piece of the Solar Energy Conversion Puzzle; Represents a Major Step Toward a New Generation of Photovoltaics New research led by chemists in the Baruch ’60 Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is seeking to detail the individual steps of highly efficient reactions that convert sunlight into chemical energy within plants and bacteria. In a paper...

A biomimetic antenna for gathering sunlight may one day transform solar-powered devices. Sometimes when people talk about solar energy, they tacitly assume that we’re stuck with some version of the silicon solar cell and its technical and cost limitations. Not so. The invention of the solar cell, in 1941, was inspired by a newfound understanding of semiconductors, materials that can use light energy to create mobile electrons—and ultimately an electrical current. Silicon solar...

Stress protection: How blue-green algae hoard energyUnder normal conditions, cyanobacteria, also termed blue-green algae, build up energy reserves that allow them to survive under stress such as long periods of darkness. They do this by means of a molecular switch in an enzyme. By removing this switch, it should be possible to use the excess energy of the bacteria for biotechnological purposes such as hydrogen production, without the bacteria suffering. This was found out by researchers at...

In a head-to-head battle of harvesting the sun's energy, solar cells beat plants, according to a new paper in Science. But scientists think they can even up the playing field, says researcher David Kramer at Michigan State University.Plants are less efficient at capturing the energy in sunlight than solar cells mostly because they have too much evolutionary baggage. Plants have to power a living thing, whereas solar cells only have to send electricity down a wire. This is a big difference...

"I have a slide that has a photo of a cornfield and a big photovoltaic array," says Robert Blankenship, a scientist who studies photosynthesis at Washington University in St. Louis. "When I give talks I often ask the audience which one is more efficient. Invariably the audience votes overwhelmingly in favor of photosynthesis. "They are wrong.This question and its surprising answer (below) is the point of departure for a provocative article published in the May 13 issue of...

Inexpensive hydrogen for automotive or jet fuel may be possible by mimicking photosynthesis, according to a Penn State materials chemist, but a number of problems need to be solved first."We are focused on the hardest way to make fuel," said Thomas Mallouk, Evan Pugh Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics. "We are creating an artificial system that mimics photosynthesis, but it will be practical only when it is as cheap as gasoline or jet fuel."Splitting water into...

Arizona State University builds protein beam injector; contributes nanocrystalsUnraveling the molecular basis of life is an age-old quest of humanity. A breakthrough towards this goal was reported in a pair of studies published Feb. 3 in the scientific journal Nature, detailing a new method developed to determine structures of biomolecules based on diffraction from protein nanocrystals that are so small that they are not even visible under the microscope. A tiny aerojet nozzle provides a...