Plants and trees may seem pretty passive, but behind the scenes, their cells are working hard to put on a magic show. In this episode of Crash Course Botany, we’ll explore how the processes of ...

Microscopic ocean algae produce a huge share of Earth’s oxygen—but they need iron to do it. New field research shows that when iron is scarce, phytoplankton waste energy and photosynthesis falters.

For generations, we’ve been taught a simple rule: oxygen comes from sunlight. Plants, algae, and microscopic phytoplankton use light to power photosynthesis, releasing the oxygen that fills our ...

In the centre of the photosystem II (left), four manganese atoms (purple), five oxygen atoms (red) and one calcium atom (green) form the oxygen-evolving complex. The cluster (right) contains only five ...

Scientists discovered that mitochondria inside plant cells can pull oxygen away from chloroplasts, revealing a hidden mechanism that may help plants adapt to stress.

The energy that plants capture from sunlight through photosynthesis provides the source of nearly all of humanity's food. Yet the process of photosynthesis has inefficiencies that limit crop ...

With artificial photosynthesis, humankind could utilize solar energy to bind carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen. Chemists have taken this one step further: They have synthesized a stack of dyes that ...