Letters from the August 21, 2004, issue of Science News
By Science News
Complex issue
When cyanobacteria and plants transfer electrons photosynthetically, light is absorbed not by their photosynthetic proteins but by chlorophylls (“Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins,” SN: 6/5/04, p. 355: Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins). Some of these proteins indeed participate in electron flow, but they are not plant photoreceptors. How then, do they “retain their function” and “absorb photons” in the fabricated solar cell described?