By: Jessica Jin

In a paper published in Nature on June 14, researchers confirmed the hypothesis that a single photon can start photosynthesis. Graham Fleming, a chemical physicist from University of California, Berkeley, and other researchers conducted an experiment to test if a single light particle could kick off a plant’s energy process.

Plants, algae, and certain types of bacteria need light particles, or photons, to transform into chemical energy. That chemical energy works like a food source for the plant to grow.

Fleming and his team used a light source that only produces two photons at a time for the experiment. The experiment starts with the two photons being released to a type of bacteria that can photosynthesize. One of the photons went to the bacteria. The other floated away from the bacteria source. Using detectors, the scientists could see that the bacteria gave off a third photon with a different wavelength. This is the first sign of the start to photosynthesis.

This needed to be confirmed, though, because something else might have triggered the bacteria to start the photosynthesis process. The researchers studied the timing of when the photons were released and when it touched the bacteria. They also compared the time when the 3rd photon had appeared. They confirmed that the bacteria had photosynthesized one photon.

These findings confirmed the truth of what scientists suspected about photosynthesis. This could be useful information for future research, such as on new life forms—perhaps on another planet.

Sources:

A single particle of light can kick off photosynthesis (snexplores.org)

The Three Stages of Photosynthesis | Sciencing