Contact: Diana Lutz
dlutz@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis

Legacy Biochemistry I: Light Saturaton

Caption: The response of photovoltaics to the sun's intensity is linear (red line, bottom graph). The more light comes in, the more electricity comes out. Plants, on the other hand, are quickly overwhelmed and begin dumping excess energy they don't have the capacity to process (pale blue line, bottom graph). As a consequence they can't make use of much of the sun's output (top).

Credit: Blankenship/WUSTL

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