Photosynthesis allows plants, algae and certain bacteria to turn sunlight into chemical energy. The amazing feat is achieved because sunlight can fuel a reaction between water and carbon dioxide that, in turn, produces carbohydrates (simple sugars) and oxygen. Here is the latest news on photosynthesis, including the oldest evidence of it on Earth and how blocking photosynthesis on a large scale can affect food chains.
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China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that it's turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sinkHuge-scale ecological engineering around the edges of one of the world's largest and driest deserts has turned it into a carbon sink that absorbs more CO2 than it emits, research suggests.
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Scientists invent photosynthetic 'living' material that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphereScientists have developed a material with photosynthetic bacteria that convert carbon dioxide into a mineral skeleton. The material hardens over time, so it could be used for buildings, they say.
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Plants: Facts about our oxygen providersDiscover interesting facts about why plants are green, if they feel pain, and if they get cancer.
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'Perhaps it's only a matter of time': Intelligent life may be much more likely than first thought, new model suggestsFor decades, scientists assumed that life on Earth emerged through a chain of highly improbable flukes. But a new theory suggests it may have instead arrived just in time.
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Tiny photosynthetic aliens could be lurking in hidden bubbles in Mars' ice — and could soon be replicated on EarthA new NASA-led study suggests that photosynthetic microbes could thrive in hidden bubbles of meltwater below patches of ice on Mars. This could be one of the easiest places to search for extraterrestrial life "anywhere in the universe," the team says.
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Deep below the Arctic Ocean, some plants have adapted to photosynthesize in almost near darknessPlants found to photosynthesize 160 feet beneath the surface of the Arctic Ocean offer tantalizing prospects for the future.
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What is photosynthesis?Reference Photosynthesis is the process plants, algae and some bacteria use to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen.
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Fossils locked away for 1.75 billion years hold clues about key moment in Earth's historyFossils from Australia provide the first direct evidence that photosynthesis was happening at least 1.75 billion years ago.
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Mangrove leaf slug: The solar-powered mollusk that gobbles up sunlight then goes months without eatingThis frilly slug lives in the mangroves of southeastern Asia and Australia, lounging in shallow pools of water and scraping up algae from which it gains the ability to photosynthesize.
