Evolution imbued ants with an agriculture strategy that optimizes food rewards.

From bubbling plants to endangered whales, here are some amazing images from The Scientist in 2019.

Plants use two different strategies to photosynthesize underwater.

Researchers devise a way to make plants’ stomata open and close more quickly.

Arabidopsis with guard cells modified by a light-activated potassium ion channel can open and close stomata more quickly, conserving water.

Microbes that dwell in nutrient-poor waters use a photopigment called retinal to harvest energy from sunshine at levels at least equal to those stored by chlorophyll-based systems.

Microbiologists identify diatoms, algae, and cyanobacteria species from samples above a mountaintop in France.

From the remarkable speed of enzyme-catalyzed reactions to the workings of the human brain, numerous biological puzzles are now being explored for evidence of quantum effects.

Weird effects on the scale of subatomic particles may play roles in enzyme catalysis, photosynthesis, and avian magnetoreception.

The modification beefed up plant biomass by 40 percent in field tests.

Photosynthesis can happen in more than one way.  

Researchers made a synthetic cell that can photosynthesize and make proteins crucial for cellular structure. 

The 20-year project calls into question the conventional wisdom about the role plants will play in mitigating future climate change.

A new study reports which types of corals make the most of the sunlight they receive. 

Injecting photosynthetic microbes into oxygen-starved heart tissue can improve cardiac function in rodents. 

Stylophora pistillata, a reef coral in the Northern Red Sea, thrived in simulated global-warming conditions.

An X-ray laser technique allows researchers to capture each stage of photosystem II—in vivid detail—at room temperature.

Researchers enhance the photosynthetic yield of tobacco plants with genetic engineering.

Begonia plants capture extra light in the shade thanks to specialized structures in their chloroplasts.