Unlike us, plants don't need pantries full of food to stay alive; the Sun is their pantry. But, like us, they require fairly regular sustenance, which they create via photosynthesis. This seemingly ...

Trees need sunlight for the same reason you need food. The energy from the Sun’s rays is a crucial ingredient in how plants make their own food that helps them power all their cells. Since trees don’t ...

Sunlight drives nearly all life on Earth, but much remains a mystery about the light-harvesting molecules on which biology depends in photosynthesis. In a new study published online June 14 in the ...

Cells get nutrients from their environment, but where do those nutrients come from? Virtually all organic material on Earth has been produced by cells that convert energy from the Sun into ...

Before I retired, I taught science to fourth graders in Midland’s GT program. As a scientist myself, I wanted my students to love science as I knew it: asking and answering questions about big ideas.

Plants and trees may seem pretty passive, but behind the scenes, their cells are working hard to put on a magic show. In this episode of Crash Course Botany, we’ll explore how the processes of ...

The RuBisCO enzyme, the most abundant protein on the planet, is an essential component of photosynthesis, but it isn’t terribly efficient, especially when it gets hot. Over time, some plants evolved a ...

Scientists think they've found a way to harvest more electricity from plants, a finding that could ripple out to other renewable energy technologies. Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011.