Genetically modified viruses "provide quantum-based enhancement" for more efficient energy transport

10/16/2015 - 15:51

David L. Chandler


Nature has had billions of years to perfect photosynthesis, which directly or indirectly supports virtually all life on Earth. In that time, the process has achieved almost 100 percent efficiency in transporting the energy of sunlight from receptors to reaction centers where it can be harnessed — a performance vastly better than even the best solar cells.

One way plants achieve this efficiency is by making use of the exotic effects of quantum mechanics — effects sometimes known as “quantum weirdness.”

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Ref: Enhanced energy transport in genetically engineered excitonic networks. Nature Materials (2015) | DOI: 10.1038/nmat4448