27 August 2012 - photosynthesis 2

All humans ills are ultimately due to Rubisco, which is both the most common protein and the least efficient enzyme on the planet. Rubisco does the hard step in photosynthesis, fixing carbon from the air, which amounts to running a fire in reverse. When Rubisco evolved the atmosphere had lots of carbon dioxide and no oxygen, and now that it’s the other way around the original design cannot be hammered into shape to know the difference. Luckily we’re running a lot of fires forward in our cars and power plants, which will eventually correct the air, get the biosphere turning over like it should and cure all human ills.