[ Your Name ]  would like to inform you about this article on
Complexity Digest 2008.34 - 15
http://comdig.unam.mx/index.php?id_issue=2008.34#30958
21-Aug-2008

[ Your Message ]

PDF files of our annual editions are available at
http://www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html

A letter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at
http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html

Using a Poison to Turn Sunlight into Food, Scientific American
 









Excerpts:     POISON PHOTOSYNTHESIS: This red slime mat is made up of an
extremophile bacteria that uses arsenic to power photosynthesis.    Bacteria
from a hot spring in California conduct photosynthesis with arsenic--and suggest
a process that might have predated typical photosynthesis (...) These are not
the only bacteria that use poison to make food: They are from the genus
Ectothiorhodospira, which largely relies on another poison, toxic hydrogen
sulfide, for the same purpose. By analyzing the genetic material of the microbe,
the researchers have also determined that this is a primitive process, going
back at least three billion years, according to Oremland. That could mean that
arsenic-based photosynthesis predates the oxygen-producing variety that enables
life as we know it.
Source: Using a Poison to Turn Sunlight into Food[
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=using-a-poison-to-turn-sunlight-into-food ],
David Biello, Scientific American, 08/08/18

You can discuss this article on Articles Forum
http://comdig.unam.mx/topic.php?id_article=30958