Long before humans figured out how to harness solar power, photosynthesizers beat us to it. Our first attempt came less than 3,000 years ago, when the ancient Greeks built magnifying glasses to concentrate light for starting fires. By then, other lifeforms had already been converting those same rays into chemical energy for upwards of 3.5 billion years. There is truly nothing new under the sun.
This process, called photosynthesis, is fundamental to almost all life on Earth. Primary producers (plants, most familiarly, but also algae and cyanobacteria) use it to make their own food, then they become food for the organisms higher up the chain.
In terms of importance, cellular biologist Geoffrey McFadden wrote in a study published in Plant Physiology that “the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis must rank just after the origin of life itself.”
What Is Photosynthesis?
Simply put, photosynthesis is how plants build their bodies. Instead of running around chasing down meals, like other living things, they just bask in the sun. To high-maintenance creatures such as ourselves it seems like magic, as if they’re bootstrapping themselves into existence.
