Feb 13 2009
Electric Veggies
Do all fields ultimately reduce down to physics? Will my field, psychology, ever couch its understanding of behavior in terms of neurochemical inertia?
Certainly, when teasing out the most fundamental mechanisms of plant growth and life we meet many chemical processes that border on the purely physical. Recent research into photosynthesis has better revealed the basic, nuts-and-bolts of the processes involved. And they clearly belong in the domain of physics.
[I]n very small-scale systems such as photosynthetic molecules, quantum effects come into play making it difficult for scientists to explain how photosynthetic molecules are able to transport energy with remarkably high efficiency.
Lasers to the rescue! How else to better understand . . . a fundamental element of biological life. Lasers. Specifically, by putting together a combination of high-power laser frequencies, the scientists discovered this, in the words of Dr Ian Mercer -
These new pictures are instantaneous snap-shots of energy being transported between electrons across a protein. Remarkably, the pictures go further in unravelling the complex way the electrons interact. This gives us something akin to a fingerprint for electronic couplings.
Stand back! That broccoli is electric. Cool.
I just wonder when I’ll be able to interpret some of my dreams using a large hadron collider. Or something.
