Artificial Photosynthesis

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2012

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Chemist Andrea Sella explores the current race to do photosynthesis better than nature ever achieved.

In just a few hundred years mankind has burnt fossil fuels that had taken natural photosynthesis billions of years to create.

Now, around the world hundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on the race to develop a robust, cheap and efficient way to turn the light from the sun into fuels we can use.

At a time when politicians everywhere debate the economic and climatic burdens of our future energy needs, such a "solar fuel" would be a genuinely novel alternative energy.

(Image: Some beech leaves. Credit: Martin Dohrn /Science Photo Library)

Transcript

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0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:40.9	My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned
0:43.0	podcast for BBC Sounds.
0:45.0	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality,
0:49.0	featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:54.4	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
1:00.9	poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples.
1:06.4	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over
1:11.1	at BBC Sounds, Just before this BBC
1:13.5	podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. My name's Linda
1:17.8	Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. As you'd expect at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality
1:25.0	featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
1:30.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things
1:35.0	like pop stars, poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
1:42.0	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected,
	...

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