By learning to harness light like nature, we’re launching a new era of green chemistry

Photosynthesis is nature’s way of turning sunlight into chemical energy.

Plants use a green pigment called chlorophyll to absorb sunlight, using this solar energy to convert carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into glucose, which they use as a food source. This process also produces oxygen, which is released into the atmosphere.

This transformation, however, does not happen in a single step. Instead, plants absorb four photons (particles of light) in a carefully choreographed sequence, gradually accumulating the energy required to split water molecules and release oxygen.

This multi-photon process is a remarkably elegant solution to the challenge of capturing and storing solar energy.

For decades, we chemists have looked to photosynthesis...