Who invented photosynthesis?

triviapaul

Plants, about 3.5 billion years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis#Evolution The discovery of the mechanism is an effort by many scientists over time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis#Discovery "In 1796, Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor, botanist, and naturalist, demonstrated that green plants consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen under the influence of light. Soon afterwards, Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure showed that the increase in mass of the plant as it grows could not be due only to uptake of CO2, but also to the incorporation of water. Thus the basic reaction by which photosynthesis is used to produce food (such as glucose) was outlined." May 20 08, 5:17 AM

zbeckabee

"The invention of oxygenic photosynthesis was a small step for a bacterium, but a giant leap for biology and geochemistry." "I think two terms need to be considered more closely -—invention and small. An invention, according to Webster’s Online Dictionary is, “the creation of something in the mind, a creation resulting from study and experimentation.” This would all seem to indicate a conscious intelligence that does not apply to bacteria." http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/origin-of-photosynthesis May 20 08, 5:59 AM

triviapaul

Ok the organisms that invented photosynthesis could hardly be called plants. How about bacteria, in particular the Chloroflexus aurantiacus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroflexus_aurantiacus "To be sure, it was primitive bacteria that invented photosynthesis, not plants per se, which emerged much later. " http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/text/text_bio_1.html And this one clearly states that "In short, Joseph Priestley discovered, or invented, photosynthesis and interpreted his first photosynthesis experiments using the phlogiston theory, a set of concepts which were actually totally wrong." http://www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/ps2004/priestle.htm May 20 08, 9:02 AM

Arpeggionist

Cyanobacteria, among the most primitive forms of life on Earth, have been photosynthesizing for almost 4 billion years now, and it seems they were the first things on Earth to do so. Certainly by the time plants began to develop it had been already one of the most common ways of extracting energy from the water and the atmosphere for quite some time. May 20 08, 10:20 AM

author

I don't think photosynthesis could be "invented", but it could be "discovered". Quote: Although some of the steps in photosynthesis are still not completely understood, the overall photosynthetic equation has been known since the 1800s. Jan van Helmont began the research of the process in the mid-1600s when he carefully measured the mass of the soil used by a plant and the mass of the plant as it grew. After noticing that the soil mass changed very little, he hypothesized that the mass of the growing plant must come from the water, the only substance he added to the potted plant. His hypothesis was partially accurate - much of the gained mass also comes from carbon dioxide as well as water. However, this was a signaling point to the idea that the bulk of a plant's biomass comes from the inputs of photosynthesis, not the soil itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis May 20 08, 6:53 PM