Why it matters

Almost every calorie you have ever eaten started as sunlight captured by a plant. Photosynthesis is the reaction that builds sugar out of carbon dioxide and water, powered by light, and it releases the oxygen you are breathing right now.

In this course we will follow a single photon from the sun into a glucose molecule.

The leaf is a solar panel

A leaf is flat and thin for a reason: it maximises the surface facing the sun while keeping the distance gases must travel very short. Image on the left, text on the right.