• eponymous_anonymous@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    edit-2
    16 hours ago

    Retinal photosynthesis, also known as the Purple Earth Theory. Colours are weird. Earth plants absorb red and blue light, they look green to us because that’s the wavelength of light that cannot be used by the chloroplasts.

    It’s hypothesized that this was advantageous on Earth because blue light goes further into water than the other wavelengths, facilitating the development of photosynthetic algae

    Retinal photosynthesis is another viable chemical chain reaction that could be used to create ATP (usable biological energy) from light.

    It’s another molecule similar to chlorophyll, but it absorbs green light instead of red/blue - alien planets might be purple!

    There’s a viable parallel evolutionary pathway that leads to plants with magenta leaves

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 hour ago

      So humans vision is much more sensitive to green than other colors. it’s why camera sensors are 50% green 25% red 25% blue. Which makes sense as being able to detect small differences in plant cover is useful in both detecting predators and prey.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter

      If humans had more flat color detection range we woulda actually be able to see that the sky is purple and not blue.