Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Scientists in Japan may have unlocked the key to recreating how plants perform photosynthesis, according to a new study, potentially paving the way for new ways to harvest solar energy.
Plants and some bacteria are able to perform photosynthesis—transforming light from the sun into chemical energy—using light-harvesting supramolecules. But while these complex supramolecules have been studied before, humans haven’t been able to artificially recreate them.
Until now, scientists say.
A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemical Communications last week outlines how researchers were able to synthesize and study the formation of light-harvesting supramolecules, which they believe could be pivotal in future solar technology.
A supramolecule, or supermolecule, is an entity created by two or more molecules being held together in a non-covalent bond, the most well-known example being the double helix structure of DNA.
The recreation of light-harvesting supramolecules has eluded scientists because of how complex they are. They consist of numerous pigments, such as chlorophyll, arranged in a specific pattern that changes depending on the species, ranging from spiral structures that morph into large tubes in green photosynthetic bacteria to ring-shaped stacks in purple photosynthetic bacteria.
It is these ring-shaped structures that researchers focused on in the new study. By mixing chemicals and proteins in an organic solvent, researchers discovered how to trigger the substances to self-assemble into the ring-shaped supramolecule.
The initial discovery was a surprise. Once researchers investigated the process of self-assembly more closely, they found that there was an intermediary stage, wherein the molecules initially formed wavy nanofibers.
In this stage, it was possible for reasearchers to guide the assembly process using heat. When the nanofibers were heated at 50 degrees Celsius, they formed smaller nanorings, which eventually joined into the ring-shaped structures that researchers were going for.
What this means, according to researchers, is that they’re able to synthesize these light-harvesting supramolecules through this method of manipulating the molecules with heat and adjusting the concentration of chlorophyll.
The study noted that this did not require protein scaffolds, a tool often used in promoting cell bonding and growth.
“The self-assemblies we synthesized enable efficient sunlight absorption along with excitation energy migration and transfer,” Shogo Matsubara, an assistant professor with the Nagoya Institute of Technology and one of the members of the research team, said in a press release.
“Mimicking the arrangement of chlorophyll pigments observed in nature is critical to not only understand natural photosynthesis but also construct artificial LH (light-harvesting) systems for devices such as solar cells.”
Humans already have a way to harness the power of the sun: solar technology such as solar panels.
But while solar panels use semiconductors to absorb solar energy and turn it into electricity, the idea behind artificial photosynthesis is to mimic the way that plants store energy from the sun and use it to split water molecules to create several types of energy.
Researchers noted that the ability to adjust the structure of the supramolecules using external stimuli means it could be possible to create smart materials in the future that could be adjusted at the molecular level to better perform photosynthesis.
It’s not yet clear when we might be able to harness these artificial light-harvesting supramolecules as a part of solar technology, but researchers say that further investigations into their optical properties are underway.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.