Photosynthesis

A new study has tugged photosynthesis research in an interesting new direction, with a team at Sweden’s Lund University demonstrating how carefully spaced mirrors can be used to trap light and supercharge its effects.

Scientists have improved on the natural process of photosynthesis, not only growing plants more efficiently, but doing so in the dark. This could expand agriculture to areas that don’t get enough sunlight, and even help feed future space explorers.

Electricity-producing bacteria could be an intriguing renewable energy source. Engineers have now developed a biobattery that contains three layers of different bacteria species, which together take in sunlight and produce electricity.

Scientists have long studied the abilities of photosynthetic bacteria that turn sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into energy, and by giving these communities a home likened to a high-rise apartment block, a team has broken new ground in this space.

As a seedling matures into a tree, its trunk and branches become stiffer and stronger. Scientists have now replicated this effect in a photosynthesis-assisted 3D-printing ink, made partially from spinach.

One of the challenges in 3D printing biological tissue lies in the fact that the cells may die before oxygen-delivering blood vessels grow into the material. Harvard scientists are addressing that issue, by adding algae to the mix.

Photosynthesis is one of nature’s most useful chemical reactions, so scientists often try to mimic it. Researchers have now developed a new way to make hybrid synthetic-living cells that can use photosynthesis to clear carbon dioxide from the air.

One argued silver lining of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is that plants will be better off. But a new study has found that the more extreme heat and drought brought on by climate change would cancel out most of the benefits for trees.

Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology have fine-tuned an artificial leaf design and used it to produce drugs for the first time.

A new study is raising concerns over the effects of plastic pollution in our oceans. For the first time researchers investigated how a common ocean bacteria, responsible for producing over 10 percent of oxygen in the atmosphere, is impaired by chemicals that can leach out of plastic products.

Over the last few years humans have tried to mimic nature with artificial leaves, but they’re never quite up to scratch. Now, researchers have designed a new version that could work under real-world conditions, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and creating oxygen and synthetic fuels.

Research has demonstrated a novel technique to enhance photosynthetic efficiency in rice crops can increase grain yields by up to 27 percent. The study follows other recent demonstrations of food bioengineering designed to enhance worldwide food productivity by improving the photosynthesis process.