Green plants capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and store carbon in their tissues.
Sperm whale poop helps fertilize algae, which in turn suck up carbon dioxide via photosynthesis.
A tree's cells synthesize sugars from these raw materials via photosynthesis.
We're trying to modify photosynthesis to produce hydrogen directly from sunlight.
Like land plants, phytoplankton have chlorophyll to capture sunlight, and they use photosynthesis to turn it into chemical energy.
Plants naturally take in carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis, the process of changing light energy to chemical energy.
Through photosynthesis, leaves use the power of sunlight to assemble sugars using only carbon dioxide, oxygen and water.
During photosynthesis, leaves have to produce chlorophyll to capture the energy from the sun, and it is this chlorophyll that gives them their green colour.
This action all takes place inside tiny capsules called chloroplasts that reside inside every plant cell - and which is where photosynthesis happens.
The belt of vegetation that crosses Africa below the Sahara is very dark because most of the sunlight is absorbed by plants for photosynthesis.
One fantasy is that in the future solar energy will be stored and put to work chemically, much as it is in plants through photosynthesis.
The research is also a necessary step toward creating artificial photosynthesis, where fuel could be generated directly from the sun, much as plants do.
Plants catch light and turn it into an electric current, then use that energy to excite catalysts that split water into hydrogen and oxygen during what is called photosynthesis' light cycle.
Whoever turns out to be right, though, it is an intriguing idea: instead of releasing the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere, why not recapture it by photosynthesis?
