Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Photosynthesis


A bit ago I discussed the process here on Earth which captures and stores the sun’s energy ... photosynthesis ... see: Living Life. I called this process “magical” because I have never read a convincing explanation of how it really happens (try: Photosynthesis Process). We know it involves sunlight, chlorophyll, water and the very small amount of CO2 in our atmosphere (0.04%) ... and produces a hydrocarbon (glucose) and oxygen.

OK, I’m going out on a scientific limb here ... and conclude that, for this chemical process to take place, something like electrolysis needs to occur to separate water into its components, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen then combines with the CO2 (chlorophyll acting as a catalyst?) to form glucose (C6H12O6 atoms ... an endothermic chemical reaction) which effectively then stores the energy of the sun.

But what process like hydrolysis separates water into the atoms hydrogen and oxygen? This is where I surmise nature’s magic. As it turns out electrons cannot really travel through space from the sun and break the bond between these two elements of water (an exothermic reaction). But, photons and neutrinos can combine under certain conditions to form electrons (look it up) ... and our sun produces these two subatomic particles, photons and neutrinos, in almost infinite numbers. My loopy surmise is that this is what happens and the electrons produced then break water into its two component atoms.

Crazy? I could be ... but to me this explanation makes more sense than the above photosynthesis  explanation.

24CO2 + 6H2O — 2C12H6O + 26O2

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