Do We Know How Photosynthesis Works?

[Silas Sparkhammer]

Well, we can't leave science empty! So here's something I learned in grade school, and which may or may not be true (and which might or might not have been true back then...)

"Science does not know how photosynthesis works." Is this so? Is this still a "big mystery" of biology/botany?

Who's working on solving it? If we could produce artificial photosynthesis, couldn't we mass-produce food from sunlight, air, and water? Couldn't we produce *fuel* from sunlight, air, and water?

Could photosynthesis be improved upon? I was taught that it is only "two per cent" efficient. I'm not exactly sure what this is supposed to mean; I guess that only two per cent of the solar energy falling on a leaf is turned into chemical energy in the form of sugar, etc. So...what if we could boost that to three per cent? Wouldn't that lead to fast-growing plants, which could re-forest depleted land and serve as a carbon sink?

Silas (biology is DEFINITELY my weakest science)

[Elbe]

Well, from my recent bio class (one of my least favorite sciences, although I did well enough in the course) it seemed that photosynthesis is known well enough. Knowing how a biological process works is still a long way from being able to reproduce it, I should think. As for the efficiency of it, I've never heard the claim and I've no idea (I did once hear that humans are around 20-25% efficient, though), but improving on the efficiency of an energy conversion is, I would think, difficult, especially in a biological system.

[Casey]

Photosynthesis is well known as to how it works, but not yet as to how to reproduce it in the lab. It's like most biological processes- we can know every compound and enzyme, but actually making those is a challenge.

According to this professor from Berkeley, the maximal efficiency is 4.5%, with normal being less than 1%.