Photosynthesis: From natural towards artificial

Abstract

Photosynthesis, the natural process that yields food, fuel and fibre, spans physical and biological sciences, spatially from atomic scales to the global and temporally from electronic transitions to the evolutionary time frame. Photosynthesis is highly efficient in its primary energy capture, but much less so in terms of conversion to crop yield. The natural photosynthetic system provides fertile ground for exploring and dissecting partial processes that may be mimicked in artificial systems for human needs, perhaps with improved efficiency. Future developments are limited only by the imagination.