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#photosynthesis

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"Microplastics are now a ubiquitous part of our daily physical reality. They suffuse our #air, our #soil, the #food we eat and the #water we drink. They’re being detected everywhere, from Antarctic sea ice to human brains. A new #study published reveals how #microplastics hinder #photosynthesis across a wide range of plant species—including crucial food #crops." scientificamerican.com/article

Scientific American · Microplastic Pollution Is Messing with Photosynthesis in PlantsBy Joanna Thompson

#MolecularClock analysis shows #bacteria used oxygen long before widespread photosynthesis
phys.org/news/2025-04-molecula

A geological timescale for bacterial #evolution and oxygen adaptation science.org/doi/10.1126/scienc

"the earliest aerobic transition occurred in an ancestor of photosynthetic #cyanobacteria, indicating that the ability to utilize trace amounts of oxygen may have allowed the development of genes central to oxygenic #photosynthesis."

These plants photosynthesise deep in the arctic even when there’s no light.

Under the sea ice during the Arctic’s pitch-black polar night, cells power photosynthesis on the lowest light levels ever observed in nature.

mediafaro.org/article/20250302

WIRED · These Plants Photosynthesize Deep in the Arctic Even When There’s No LightBy Asher Elbein

From large trees in the Amazon jungle to houseplants to seaweed in the ocean, #green is the color that reigns over the #plant kingdom.

Why green, and not blue or magenta or gray?

Although plants absorb almost all the photons in the red and blue regions of the light spectrum, they absorb only about 90% of the green photons.

Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of #photosynthesis.

quantamagazine.org/why-are-pla

Quanta Magazine · Why Are Plants Green? To Reduce the Noise in Photosynthesis.By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega