Researchers investigating photosynthesis on a molecular level found an unexpected process that can potentially produce clean energy.
They used ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy to investigate the behavior of quinones within photosynthetic cyanobacteria.
The researchers discovered that the protein scaffold within photosynthesis easily leaks out electrons to protect plants from rapidly fluctuating light conditions.
The discovery potentially makes it easier to manipulate photosynthetic pathways to generate clean fuels using water and solar energy.
The research has been published in Nature.
The new imaging technique allowed the researchers to trace the flow of energy in living photosynthetic cells on a femtosecond scale.
Previous efforts to extract energy from photosynthesis at earlier stages were unsuccessful because of how deeply the energy is buried within protein scaffolds.
The discovery opens up remarkable opportunities for new discoveries on how nature operates.