Photosynthesis is a chemical process by which plants, some bacteria, and algae convert energy derived from sunlight to chemical energy. This is an important process for biological life on earth because it allows energy from sunlight to be harnessed and transferred into a form that can be utilized by organisms to fuel their activity.
Organic, i.e. carbon-containing dyes have important roles in nature. For example, they are responsible for transporting oxygen and other gases in the body (as part of hemoglobin) and converting solar energy into chemical energy in photosynthesis (chlorophyll).
In order to grow well, plants need a place to grow, access to nutrients, and in most cases sunlight. A rich soil provides that home and a good supply of nutrients.
Crops need to be more adaptable than ever as extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and heat waves grow more frequently.
Phytoplankton is the foundation of all life on the planet. Understanding how these photosynthetic organisms react to their ocean environment is important to understanding the rest of the food web.
Plants and algae use green-tinted chlorophyll to convert high-energy sunlight into food via photosynthesis.
A common weed harbors important clues about how to create drought-resistant crops in a world beset by climate change.
Phytoplasmas are bacteria that can invade the vascular tissues of plants, causing many different crop diseases.
Researchers have reproduced what life was like for some of the oldest species on Earth using light-capturing proteins found in living microorganisms. These initiatives may enable everyone to spot life in distant worlds, whose atmospheres mirror the pre-oxygen planet more closely.
Photosynthesis is the process that enables plants to take sunlight and carbon dioxide and convert it into chemical energy to grow.
Every day, plants around the world perform an invisible miracle. They take carbon dioxide from the air and, with the help of sunlight, turn it into countless chemicals essential to both plants and humans.
To maintain pace with the expanding population, it is estimated that the global food supply will need to rise by 50-80% by 2050.
A group from the Australian National University studied the impacts of expanding the number of carbon dioxide channels in plant membranes.
Plants have long been the main source of nutrition. The demand for food production is always increasing as the human population grows exponentially. Since agricultural land is constrained, meeting this rising need will necessitate developing new ways to increase the productivity of existing crops.
A Cornell University study describes a breakthrough in the quest to improve photosynthesis in certain crops, a step toward adapting plants to rapid climate changes and increasing yields to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050.
Climate change doesn't just mean warmer weather. Cold spells can hit unusual lows, too, and the fluctuations between warm and chilly are becoming more extreme.
If a plant decided to go on a diet, what do you think it would choose to be as healthy as possible? It turns out that plants, like humans, rely on essential nutrients to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
Scientists reveal a new part of the recipe for complex life on planets, and it involves the onset of a microbial fertilizer factory on the Earth's seafloor roughly 2.6 billion years ago.
Manipulating the content of carotenoids, such as ß-carotene, has been found to improve plant growth and increase yield and tolerance to abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity.
Fungi, specifically those that are "mycorrhizal," are natural allies of the forest because they improve tree nutrient acquisition.
Plant geneticists can utilize a range of synthetic biology tools made by a group at Louisiana State University (LSU) to drive gene expression.