Photons are energy packets that travel between a number of light-harvesting proteins when photosynthetic cells absorb light from the sun in order to reach the photon reaction center. There, cells transform the energy into electrons, which are then used to generate sugar molecules.
Nearly every photon of light that is absorbed produces an electron, a phenomenon known as near-unity quantum efficiency. This transfer of energy through the light-harvesting complex occurs with an extremely high efficiency level.
A recent study from MIT chemists suggests a possible explanation for how the antenna’s proteins, which make up the light-harvesting complex, produce such high efficiency. The researchers were able to measure the energy transfer between light-harvesting proteins for the first time, and they found that the disorganized arrangement of