Photosynthesis

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss photosynthesis, the process by which green plants and many other organisms use sunlight to synthesise organic molecules. Photosynthesis arose very early in evolutionary history and has been a crucial driver of life on Earth. In addition to providing most of the food consumed by organisms on the planet, it is also responsible for maintaining atmospheric oxygen levels, and is thus almost certainly the most important chemical process ever discovered.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Nick Lane 5 episodes
  Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London
• Sandra Knapp 2 episodes
  Botanist at the Natural History Museum
• John Allen No other episodes
  Professor of Biochemistry at Queen Mary, University of London

Reading list

• The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History
  David Beerling (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books →
• Molecular Mechanisms of Photosynthesis
  Robert E. Blankenship (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) Google Books →
• Discoveries in Photosynthesis
  Govindjee, J. T. Beatty, H. Gest, J. F. Allen (eds.) (Springer, 2005) Google Books →
• Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
  Andrew H. Knoll (Princeton University Press, 2004) Google Books →
• Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
  Nick Lane (Oxford University Press, 2003) Google Books →
• Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
  Nick Lane (Profile Books, 2010) Google Books →
• Nature's Palette: The Science of Plant Color
  David Lee (University of Chicago Press, 2008) Google Books →
• Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet
  Oliver Morton (Fourth Estate, 2009) Google Books →
• Revolutions that Made the Planet
  Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Related episodes

• Plankton
  
  5 Oct, 2023 570 Biology
• The Origins of Life
  
  23 Sep, 2004 570 Biology
• Nuclear Fusion
  
  30 Oct, 2014 530 Physics
• The Sun
  
  1 Jan, 2015 520 Astronomy
• The Cell
  
  13 Sep, 2012 570 Biology
• Enzymes
  
  1 Jun, 2017 570 Biology
• Fungi
  
  15 Feb, 2018 570 Biology
• Carbon
  
  15 Jun, 2006 540 Chemistry
• Circadian Rhythms
  
  17 Dec, 2015 570 Biology
• Mitochondria
  
  1 Jun, 2023 570 Biology
• Complexity
  
  19 Dec, 2013 500 Science
• Microbiology
  
  8 Mar, 2007 570 Biology
• Human Evolution
  
  16 Feb, 2006 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• The Microscope
  
  28 Nov, 2013 500 Science
• Chromatography
  
  4 Feb, 2016 540 Chemistry
• Water
  
  28 Mar, 2013 540 Chemistry
• Chemical Elements
  
  25 May, 2000 540 Chemistry
• Science’s Revelations
  
  29 Oct, 1998 500 Science
• The Death of Stars
  
  9 Jun, 2022 520 Astronomy
• Oxygen
  
  15 Nov, 2007 540 Chemistry

---

Programme ID: b0435jyv

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0435jyv

Auto-category: 570 (Biology)