Photosynthesis I

Nature has put itself the problem if how to catch in flight light

streaming to the earth and to store the most elusive of all powers

in rigid form

Julius Robert Mayer, 1842

1017 kcal of free energy is stored annually by photosynthesis on

earth. This corresponds to the assimilation of more than 1010 tons

of carbon into carbohydrate and other forms of organic material.