Photosynthesis Signaling May Boost Crops, Cure Cancer

Photosynthesis signaling within plant cells is fundamental to life. Find out how a new discovery explains what triggers the process, potentially boosting crop yields and even helping cure cancer.

I can still remember Mrs. Sauer writing the formula on the blackboard back in Grade Six. It went like this:

C02 + H2O + Light → CH2O + O2

In plain language, green plants use carbon dioxide, water and light, to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. Many readers will recognize this familiar botanical process as photosynthesis.

Up until the 1600s, people thought plants grew by drawing mass out of the soil. Jan van Helmont tested this idea by measuring the mass of plants as they grew, along with the soil mass in which they were rooted.

People Thought Plants Grew by Drawing Mass from Soil

Van Helmont discovered the soil’s mass hardly changed at all, which led him to believe that plant growth must come from watering them. There’s some truth to that, but it’s not the whole story.

In 1774, Joseph Priestly conducted an experiment where he put a candle inside a…