Get the chemistry needed for the rest of the course: atoms, molecules, carbon bonds, water, carbon dioxide, and oxidation-reduction. The focus is on why moving electrons and making bonds can store or release energy.

Meet ATP, NADPH, enzymes, and concentration gradients as the working tools of photosynthetic cells. These ideas make it possible to follow how light energy becomes chemical energy step by step.

Trace carbon dioxide, water, light, and sugar through a leaf, from stomata to veins to chloroplasts. You will know the main parts of chloroplasts, including the stroma and thylakoid membranes, before using them in the full mechanism.

Follow the key experiments that proved plants use light, air, and water to build biomass and release oxygen. Priestley, Ingenhousz, Blackman, Hill, Calvin, and isotope tracing show how the field’s evidence was built.

Work with chlorophylls, carotenoids, absorption spectra, and action spectra to see how leaves capture light. Simple pigment separation and color-based reasoning connect the chemistry to visible plant traits.

See why photosynthesis depends on organized membranes, not just loose chemicals in a cell. Thylakoids place pigments, proteins, carriers, and water-splitting machinery where charge separation can be controlled.

Follow photosystem II as it absorbs light, pulls electrons from water, releases oxygen, and starts the electron transport chain. This chapter also covers the oxygen-evolving complex and why water splitting is such a demanding chemical task.

Track electrons through plastoquinone, the cytochrome b6f complex, plastocyanin, photosystem I, ferredoxin, and NADP+ reductase. You will see how electron movement is linked to proton movement and NADPH production.

Connect proton pumping to ATP synthase and chemiosmosis. The chapter shows how a difference across the thylakoid membrane becomes usable cellular energy.

Use the Calvin-Benson cycle to follow carbon dioxide into three-carbon sugars. Rubisco, reduction, regeneration, ATP use, and NADPH use are tied together as one repeating carbon-fixing workflow.

See how triose phosphate becomes sucrose for transport, starch for storage, cellulose for structure, and other plant materials. This chapter connects photosynthesis to growth, harvestable yield, and plant metabolism beyond the chloroplast.

Study Rubisco’s unwanted reaction with oxygen and why photorespiration costs energy and carbon. You will see when photorespiration becomes severe and why it shaped many later adaptations.

Connect stomata, carbon dioxide intake, transpiration, humidity, temperature, and drought. This chapter builds the tradeoff every land plant faces: gaining carbon while avoiding dangerous water loss.

Handle changing light with non-photochemical quenching, cyclic electron flow, reactive oxygen species control, and repair of damaged photosystem II. These protective systems explain how leaves survive sunflecks, shade shifts, and midday stress.

See how C4 plants concentrate carbon dioxide around Rubisco using mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. Maize, sugarcane, and sorghum show why this pathway helps in hot, bright, and often dry environments.

Follow CAM photosynthesis, where plants open stomata at night and store carbon for daytime use. Succulents, cacti, pineapple, and many orchids show how timing can save water in harsh habitats.

Compare green plants with cyanobacteria, algae, and anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. This chapter shows which parts of photosynthesis are shared, which are different, and why aquatic and microbial systems matter so much.

Trace the rise of photosynthesis from early bacteria to oxygenic cyanobacteria, the Great Oxidation Event, and chloroplasts formed by endosymbiosis. The history explains why modern life, soils, oceans, and the atmosphere look the way they do.

Use practical methods such as starch tests, oxygen bubbles, floating leaf disks, gas exchange, oxygen electrodes, and chlorophyll fluorescence. The emphasis is on controls, fair comparisons, and what each measurement can and cannot prove.

Read light response curves, CO2 response curves, compensation points, saturation points, and limiting factors. You will practice turning measurements into claims about what is slowing photosynthesis down.

Use modern structural biology to see photosystems, Rubisco, ATP synthase, and antenna complexes in fine detail. Cryo-EM, ultrafast spectroscopy, and AI-assisted protein structure models show how shape, motion, and electron transfer fit together.

See how automated greenhouses, fluorescence imaging, thermal cameras, hyperspectral sensors, drones, and machine-learning pipelines compare many plants at once. This chapter focuses on data quality, stress detection, and finding useful traits for breeding or research.

Track plant productivity across farms, forests, and oceans using NDVI, solar-induced fluorescence, eddy covariance towers, and satellite data. You will connect leaf-level chemistry to regional and global measurements.

Connect gross primary productivity, net primary productivity, respiration, carbon storage, and climate feedbacks. This chapter shows how photosynthesis fits into carbon budgets, food webs, and climate models.

Apply photosynthesis knowledge to crop yield, canopy design, nutrient limits, irrigation, heat stress, and source-sink balance. You will see why improving photosynthesis is useful but not the only limit on harvests.

Examine efforts to change photosynthesis with breeding, CRISPR, synthetic biology, Rubisco engineering, photorespiration bypasses, and C4 traits in new crops. The chapter also covers risks, regulation, field testing, and why engineered gains are hard to prove.

Connect natural photosynthesis to devices that split water, reduce carbon dioxide, and store solar energy in fuels or chemicals. Catalysts, semiconductors, microbial systems, and efficiency limits show what nature can teach engineering.

Follow a complete research workflow: ask a testable question, choose a plant system, design controls, measure photosynthesis, analyze results, check errors, and report conclusions. This chapter ties together mechanism, tools, judgment, and scientific communication.

Map the field’s paths in plant biology, ecology, agriculture, climate science, biotechnology, education, and renewable energy. You will identify useful skills, portfolio artifacts, lab and field experience, graduate routes, safety habits, and ways to stay current.