The Discovery of Photosynthesis

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Discovery of Photosynthesis

Scientists had to be content only with theories on how plants created energy for many years Scientists have been able to prove that photosynthesis takes place and see how it affects plant structures because of the modern equipment available. However, some of the leading scientists in the world were able to gradually form a theory of photosynthesis before all the facts were known, building on each other's work over a period of more than 50 years.

The discovery of the principles of photosynthesis first began with the work of Jan Baptista Van Helmont, a Flemish chemist whose work was published after his death in 1644. Helmont attempted to discover where a tree's growth comes from by growing a willow tree inside a pot with a carefully measured amount of soil. By weighing both the pot and the tree at the beginning of the project, Helmont believed he would discover that the tree gradually ate away at the soil by measuring the two again after five years. He hypothesized that the water would simply be used to carry nutrients and then evaporate. By the end of five years, the tree had added over 150 pounds of weight, but the soil lost only a few ounces. Helmont concluded, incorrectly, that the tree was in fact using and keeping the water inside its tissues to grow.

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In the 1770s, a British scientist named Joseph Preistly carried the experiment one step further by discovering that a plant could add oxygen to the air. It was already known that flames needed air to burn, and somehow used up air in an enclosed space, but Preistly discovered that by placing part of a mint plant into such a closed container the air could be renewed, leading to a longer life for the flame. Preistly did not fully understand the reasons behind this process, but his work inspired later scientists.

Ingenhousz was a Dutch doctor who worked on experiments designed ...

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