Light and Life beyond Photosynthesis

Ready to be illuminated? After two centuries of study scientists now understand how photosynthesis produces food from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, and releases oxygen. In this lecture Bob Fosbury will show how light performs other important functions which enable life, including humans, to thrive. In particular he explores how NIR (near infrared) light is reflected by vegetation as strongly as by freshly fallen snow yet penetrates deeply into living bodies, benefitting the metabolism which releases the energy for life.

Robert Fosbury is currently an emeritus astronomer at the European Southern Observatory and an honorary professor at the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London.

This is part of a series of talks on the Bath Preservation Trust / Herschel Museum of Astronomy’s theme Conserving the Planet. The other three talks are on Friday 8 September,  Lights & the insect apocalypse , Friday 3 November, A Cluttered & Noisy Sky and Friday 1 December, Solutions to Space Debris: