What is photosynthesis and how important is it to life on Earth? Detailed answer

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What is photosynthesis and how important is it to life on Earth? Detailed answer

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What is photosynthesis and how important is it to life on Earth?

Photosynthesis is the formation by higher plants, algae, photosynthetic bacteria of complex organic substances necessary for the life of both the plants themselves and all other organisms, from simple compounds (for example, carbon dioxide and water) due to the energy of light absorbed by chlorophyll and other photosynthetic pigments.

Photosynthesis is one of the most important biological processes, constantly and on a huge scale taking place on our planet. These scales and the significance of photosynthesis in nature can be judged by the amount of solar energy intercepted by green leaves and "conserved" in plants: annually, only land plants store as much energy in the form of carbohydrates as 100 large cities could spend within 100 years. ! About 95 percent of the crop is determined by organic substances obtained in green leaves due to the air-solar nutrition of plants - photosynthesis, and only the remaining 5 percent depend on soil or mineral nutrition.

As a result of photosynthesis, the vegetation of the globe annually forms more than 100 billion tons of organic matter, absorbing about 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide and releasing about 145 billion tons of free oxygen into the environment. It is possible that photosynthesis produces all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

The meaning and essence of photosynthesis was very clearly shown by K. A. Timiryazev in his famous book "The Life of Plants": "Once upon a time, somewhere a ray of the sun fell on the ground, but it did not fall on barren soil, it fell on a green blade of wheat sprout, or rather, a grain of chlorophyll. Hitting it, it went out, ceased to be light, but did not disappear. It was only spent on internal work. In one form or another, it entered the composition of the bread that served us food. It was transformed into our muscles, into our nerves. This ray warms us. It sets us in motion. Perhaps at this moment it is playing in our brain ... "

Author: Kondrashov A.P.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why is alternating current rather than direct current used for the transmission and distribution of electrical energy?

At the dawn of the electric power industry, when low-power electric current generators were located at short distances from consumers (often within the same settlement), direct electric current was successfully used to transmit electric energy. A supporter of the use of direct electric current for this purpose was, for example, Thomas Alva Edison.

Over time, the need for electricity increased, it began to be generated at large power plants with powerful units (with an increase in power, the relative costs for the construction of power plants decrease and the cost of generated electricity decreases). In this regard, there was also a need to transmit electricity over long distances.

However, the loss of electricity during its transmission is the lower, the higher the voltage of the electric current. This led to the expediency of using alternating current in power lines, the voltage of which (unlike direct current) can be easily transformed with almost no power loss.

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At the international symposium "Tea and Human Health", held in Washington (USA), Israeli researchers reported that the antioxidants contained in green tea can reanimate diseased nerve cells. Neurons in mice that were modeled for Parkinson's disease gained in size, their shriveled processes straightened out and made new contacts with surrounding cells.

The doses of antioxidants used in these experiments correspond to three to four cups of green tea per day for a person. American psychologists have shown that the rare amino acid theanine, contained in green tea, promotes concentration. The subjects had to watch symbols flashing on a computer screen and press a button when a certain symbol appeared. Before that, they drank a glass of pure water, water with theanine, water with caffeine, or water with both.

It turned out that the water itself, the addition of only theanine or only caffeine did not affect the results. But theanine with caffeine significantly improves attention, and this effect lasts for more than three hours. Doses of theanine in these experiments corresponded to 4-5 cups of tea, and caffeine - 3-4 cups.

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