Why are plants green?
eurekalert.org- Researchers created a photosynthesis model based on complex networks (cellphone, brains, power grids).
- Based on this model, they found that photosynthetic organisms protect themselves from sudden increases in solar energy by absorbing only specific colors of light.
- Absorbing only parts of the solar spectrum allows them to minimize noise in the output (=generated energy) of their solar cell system.
- It’s simple physics, it allows these organisms to protect themselves, conserve energy, and - most excitingly - it is consistent with a lot of biological observations.
- This is the first qualitative proof that photosynthetic beings (like plants) have colors (say, green) in order to protect themselves from absorbing too much energy.