Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, with oxygen as a waste product. But recent research showing that the light energy entering these organisms’ light-absorbing chromophore molecules may exist in two places at once – as a quantum superposition – has raised a new question: what role, if any, do quantum effects play in the vastly important and widespread process of photosynthesis?
