Photosynthesis Evolution Clarified by Studying Bacteria Fossils

Photosynthesis evolution remains a mystery to biologists. Find out how a new study sheds light on our understanding of this critical organic process by pushing the timeline of its origins back by over a billion years.

Like most people, I learned about photosynthesis in public school. I think it was Mrs. Martin, my teacher in Grades 3 and 4, who first showed our class the formula for the biological process plants use to convert light into chemical energy:

Light + Carbon Dioxide + Water → captured by chlorophyll → Sugar + Oxygen

The sugar and oxygen on the right-hand side of the formula are critical. Photosynthesis evolution has been the main source of Earth’s biological energy and of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

Van Helmont Began Discovery Process for Photosynthesis

Back in the 17th century, Jan van Helmont began the process that led to the discovery of photosynthesis. He carefully weighed the mass of plants and the soil in which he’d planted them.

Van Helmont found that plants absorbed very little soil mass, suggesting that plant…