6 ms·

A quick Google told me that photosynthesis uses 45% of the daylight spectrum. So I don't really understand this article, especially since it talks about photosy

A quick Google told me that photosynthesis uses 45% of the daylight spectrum. So I don't really understand this article, especially since it talks about photosynthesis being 100% efficient, when it is actually quite low: "Photosynthetically active radiation (400–700 nm) constitutes only 45% of the actual daylight. Therefore the maximum theoretical efficiency of the photosynthesis process is approximately 11%. In fact, in any case, plants don’t use all incoming sunlight (due to respiration, reflection, light inhibition and light saturation) and do not convert all harvested energy into biomass, which brings about a general photosynthetic proficiency of 3%–6% based on total solar radiation. " https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/photosynthetic-efficiency https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-a...

BobbyJo 4y ago
The difference may be the efficiency of the photosynthetic process and the efficiency of the plant itself. Like how a motor may be X% efficient, but the car it's driving on the road is far less efficient.
elcritch 4y ago
The quantum chemical process of photosynthesis in chlorophyll is (nearly) 100% efficient. The process works via quantum teleportation which means you don't get phonon / heat loss like you do with semiconductor absorption bands, IIRC.
est31 4y ago
According to a scientific theory, this is done to keep the noise of the process low: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23998793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23998793 Given how well conserved this is among plants, this has probably evolved multiple times and the reason why plants arrive at it must be very strong. Like say how a lot of animals living and swimming in water look like fish even though many of the ancestors of today's "fishes" lived on land: the "fish shape" evolved multiple times.
tengbretson 4y ago
Photosynthesis only uses 10% of the human brain.

BobbyJo 4y ago

The difference may be the efficiency of the photosynthetic process and the efficiency of the plant itself. Like how a motor may be X% efficient, but the car it's driving on the road is far less efficient.

elcritch 4y ago

The quantum chemical process of photosynthesis in chlorophyll is (nearly) 100% efficient. The process works via quantum teleportation which means you don't get phonon / heat loss like you do with semiconductor absorption bands, IIRC.

est31 4y ago

According to a scientific theory, this is done to keep the noise of the process low: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23998793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23998793 Given how well conserved this is among plants, this has probably evolved multiple times and the reason why plants arrive at it must be very strong. Like say how a lot of animals living and swimming in water look like fish even though many of the ancestors of today's "fishes" lived on land: the "fish shape" evolved multiple times.

tengbretson 4y ago

Photosynthesis only uses 10% of the human brain.