Researchers have discovered that algae in low-light conditions are able to switch a quantum behavior off and on during photosynthesis.
The team led by scientists from the University of New South Wales in Australia suspect this could help the algae harvest energy from the Sun more efficiently.
The phenomenon is quantum coherence. A system that is coherent - with all quantum waves in step with each other - can exist in many different states at once, an effect known as superposition.
Usually scientists only see this behaviour occurring the lab, but the scientists were surprised to find that the transfer of energy between molecules in the light harvesting systems of two different algae was coherent.
The work was done on cryptophytes, single-celled organisms that live at the bottom of pools of water or under thick ice, in very low levels or light.
Learning more about why these algae switch quantum coherence on and off could lead to technological advances, such as better organic solar cells and quantum-based electronic devices. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment