Chapter 8: Photosynthesis

Without photosynthesis, the amazing diversity of life that inhabits our planet would not be possible. Nearly every oxygen atom in the air we breathe was once a water molecule that had undergone photosynthesis and been released. All of the energy produced by burning coal, firewood, gasoline, natural gas, as well as all of the food that is either directly or indirectly burned by human bodies, has been gathered from sunlight by photosynthesis. Therefore, it is crucial that we comprehend photosynthesis. In an increasingly crowded society, research may help us achieve crucial objectives like bettering agriculture yields and land utilization. We discussed how cells draw chemical energy from food molecules and employ that energy to fuel their functions in chapter 7. In this chapter, we'll look at the process of photosynthesis, which is how living things like the aptly called sunflowers in the image use light energy to create food molecules that are high in chemical energy.