we already know how photosynthesis is done ; so why cant we creat “artificial plants” that take CO2 and gives O2 and energy in exchange?
In: Biology
First, we actually still don’t know exactly how every step of photosynthesis works. Second, the reactions in photosynthesis are catalyzed (made possible) by enzymes, which are highly specialized since they’ve been evolving for billions of years. Humans may be good at technology, but we cannot compete with billions of years of evolution to produce catalysts that perform as well as those that do photosynthesis. Photosynthetic organisms just do it better than we can. And third, we actually *are* working to improve photosynthesis and apply it in novel ways. There is new biotech which has made photosynthesis more efficient in some plants, and has allowed for part of the process to be ported over to industrial microbes so that they can use CO2 as a direct feedstock for chemical production.
Latest Answers