How is it that winter always feels so long and yet in a matter of a few sunny days, all of the dreary, grey colors of winter are happily forgotten, and the landscape returns to its collage of beautiful greens?
The answer is a wonderful molecule called chlorophyll! There are several photosystems in the chloroplasts of plant cells which serve to translate light energy into chemical energy. No matter how familiar one is with this chemistry of this biological process, it is really a wonder of nature I think that plants have this ability to generate their own energy, and of course it is an evolution-based necessity-we are here because of chlorophyll I guess is another way of putting it. We are also hear because of nucleic acids, and amino acids, lipids and carbohydrates. For me, this is why biochemistry is amazing- we study what allows for life to exist on the molecular level. And as a class of musicians and artists, we also know what it means to appreciate what life is like beyond our biological make-ups, and yet I think as many past posts have illustrated (more so in the intersection of psyc. and biochem than other areas) that these two the biological, and our creations/our extensions of who we are, are intertwined.
Ok will get back on the track. So Chlorophyll helps in the early stage of the energy conversion process by absorbing energy from light. As you can see in the below image, it most strongly absorbs UV light in the blue and red electromagnetic ranges, and is a poor absorber of light in the green range. Hence why tissues with chlorophyll appear GREEN! Chlorophyll is hard for the plant to make and therefore plants will only make it, when it is profitable, meaning when there is enough light energy to be harvested, which is not the case in the short days of the winter. Cheers to it almost being summer, full of beautiful nature to be in awe of and exhilarating hikes and outdoors activity. We’re almost there, we can do this!
