Summary
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.
With:
Nick Lane Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London
Sandra Knapp Botanist at the Natural History Museum
John Allen Professor of Biochemistry at Queen Mary, University of London.
Producer: Thomas Morris
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. |
| 0:43.2 | UK slash radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program. |
| 0:47.0 | Hello three and a half billion years ago this planet was a hostile and |
| 0:51.5 | barren place the atmosphere was toxic and |
| 0:54.2 | contained no oxygen and life on earth was restricted to a variety of |
| 0:58.2 | unsophisticated single-celled organisms which lived in the sea. But then a new type of organism emerge |
| 1:05.8 | one with an amazing new capability. It could harvest energy from sunlight and |
| 1:10.3 | use it to fuel its own activities. This phenomenon is known as photosynthesis |
| 1:15.1 | and is almost certainly the most important chemical process on Earth. |
| 1:18.4 | Plants and some other organisms depend on it for their energy and almost all life is ultimately reliant on it for its |
| 1:25.0 | survival. It's responsible for the food we eat and the air we breathe and without it, earth would |
| 1:29.8 | still be sterile rather than as it is teeming with life. With me to discuss photosynthesis |
| 1:34.8 | are Sandy Knapp, a botanist at the Natural History Museum, Nick Lane, reader in evolutionary |
| 1:41.2 | biochemistry at University College London and John Allen |
| 1:44.7 | professor of biochemistry at Queen Mary University of London. |
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