A nanomaterials chemist has figured out a good way to mimic leaves and turn water and carbon dioxide into things we need.
On a sunny day on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, the peaceful rustling of eucalyptus trees belies the furious chemical activity happening inside every single leaf. Through photosynthesis, leaves use the energy in sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into substances that plants need, emitting only oxygen in the process. In a nearby lab, chemist Peidong Yang is building an artificial system that does the same, using arrays of nanowires coupled with engineered bacteria. If something like this is ever scaled up, it would churn out a better version of the fuels we use today—one that does not add to the total amount of carbon dioxide in the air.