In Photosynthesis Sunlight Is Captured and Transported by Highly Specialised Antenna Proteins (IMAGE)

ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences

In Photosynthesis Sunlight Is Captured and Transported by Highly Specialised Antenna Proteins

Caption

In photosynthesis sunlight is captured and transported by highly specialised antenna proteins. Surprisingly these proteins act as quantum machines and use a quantum transport mechanism to efficiently guide the light and finally store the energy in their reaction centres. Researchers from ICFO -- the Institute of Photonic Science in Barcelona have for the first time tracked this energy flow in individual proteins and discovered that the quantum coherences makes the light flow in the antenna protein immune to the ubiquitous external natural turmoil.

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ICFO

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