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Article: Light factories: nature does it best. Or does it? An ambitious trans-Tasman cooperation is aiming to perfect artificial photosynthesis. Researchers want to exploit its potential to produce just about everything under the sun.(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Ecos
- Article date:
- October 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 CSIRO Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WE TEND TO TAKE for granted the deceptively low-key ability of plants to make carbohydrates using the energy in sunlight, so enabling life on Earth. But the researchers now attempting to emulate this feat appreciate the complexity and ingenuity of the plants and bacteria that carry out the fundamental process we call photosynthesis.
While a lowly cabbage can photosynthesise with uncanny ease, humans attempting to imitate the biochemistry and biophysics of plants through artificial photosynthesis face some daunting challenges. It requires such a broad range of expertise that, in this part of the world, some 40 researchers from 11 institutes in Australia and New ...