“Scientific and technological advances have enabled us to zoom into the biological world. We can get down to the biomolecular scale, a domain where quantum phenomena can take place and therefore cannot be neglected.”
I think that whoever said photosynthesis is all known, been there done that, does not have a clue about how recent our understanding of such an important biological process has gained from zooming in and peering into happenings at smaller and smaller (picosecond, femtosecond) intervals. Suffice it to say that processes happening on this scale have to be scaled up or slowed down in order for us to even be able to acknowledge they exist since they completely overstep our own sensation of a specious present. It is highly ironic that some of the most efficient and most ancient energy uses happen on levels that are just now being explored or approached. It is this clean energy and high efficiency that escapes us and we are very far from trying to mimic it in a lab environment. Harnessing each moment the energy from our nearest star is much more complicated than we think even if it appears all-natural, all happening at once and without much thought. This molecular (and quantum) complexity is mind-boggling and also merits the effort of listening attentively because it comes from somebody trying hard to take us on a trip riding on a photon.
TimeSpace Warps 