Scientists now know that this remarkable reaction requires the smallest possible amount of light – just one single photon – to begin.
A US team of researchers in quantum optics and biology showed that a lone photon can start photosynthesis in the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and they are confident it works in plants and algae since all photosynthetic organisms share an evolutionary ancestor and similar processes.
The team says their findings bolster our knowledge of photosynthesis and will lead to a better understanding of the intersection of quantum physics in a wide range of complex biological, chemical, and physical systems, including renewable fuels.
“A huge amount of work, theoretically and experimentally, has been done around the world trying to understand what happens after a photon is absorbed," says Graham Fleming, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley.
"But we realized that nobody was talking about the first step. That was still a question that needed to be answered in detail.”
I just saw something that looks very mundane but is extremely rare and incredible. Details later, gotta drive home.
OKAY SO
The plan was to go there friday, but as you recall, I got lost in the forest looking for cool rocks and there just wasn’t time. So I took the detour on my way back.
Here is the setting. We are at the bottom of a disused quarry. We took an hour detour and walked here for a little while and maybe you don’t really know why I’m excited yet.
At first, unless you’re a geology geek (I am not, btw), you might just be thinking, ah, rocks.
But what if we move closer?
Okay, big slab of rock. Some cracks and pockets in it. And?
Come even closer.
What’s the big deal? It’s just a rock with some marks in it. It looks so boring and ordinary and why did I even drag you to this quarry and am making you look at boring rocks?
Because. COME CLOSER.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT?
TOUCH THE LITTLE ROUND MARKS IN THE ROCK. PUT YOUR HAND OVER THEM AND FEEL THE RUSH OF HISTORY.
I AM SORRY TO BE YELLING BUT I AM VERY EXCITED.
YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE FOSSILISED FOOTPRINTS OF…
OUR ANCESTOR!
OKAY OKAY I had to add the meme for effect BUT this wouldn’t be the one in the picture, who is still a fish with fins. The tracks belong to a creature with four legs : A TETRAPOD!
Who may have looked and walked like this:
YES!!!!!These little pocks in the rock are footprints that show the path of a tetrapod crawling out of the sea, and they are approximately 495 million years old!!!
Why did the tetrapod come out of the water? Well, apparently there were invertebrates to feed on, and they left marks too:
So that was the coolest thing I saw this year for sure :D
