(Nanowerk News) Plants and other photosynthetic organisms use a wide variety of pigments to absorb different wavelengths of light. MIT researchers have now developed a theoretical model to predict the ...

Before plants evolved, vegetative life consisted of primitive green algae living in the sea. Like plants, these algae ...

Beginning two billion years of Earth’s history, the amount of oxygen was not sufficient, but rich in carbon dioxide and ...

A new kind of chlorophyll that catches sunlight from just beyond the red end of the visible light spectrum has been discovered. The new pigment extends the known range of light that is usable by most ...

A hidden pigment helps ocean algae harness sunlight without getting burned—and it may hold clues for better solar tech.

Three billion years ago, light first zipped through chlorophyll within tiny reaction centers, the first step plants and photosynthetic bacteria take to convert light into food. Three billion years ago ...

Physicists in Canada and Australia have shown that nature exploits quantum mechanics to make photosynthesis more efficient. By probing light-harvesting proteins within algae using laser beams, the ...

Light has the characteristics of both a wave and a particle. Figure 1 shows the wavelengths of red and blue light. The distance between the peaks of the wave is measured in nanometers (nm). As that ...