Photosynthesis

Although there has been considerable progress toward an understanding of the processes of photosyntehsis in recent years, the advances have been followed rather lcosely by symposia, monographs and reviews of the subject matter, particularly during the last three years. In view of the comprehensive coverage it would appear that the present review might very well be limited to a discussion of certain subjects of special interest to the authors and some with which they are especially familiar. These are (1) the extensive discussion by Warburg and his co-workers of their proposal for the existence of a light induced oxygen absorption (and corresponding carbon dioxide evolution) which can amount to three or four times the net oxygen evolution by the same light; and (2) the discovery of the early participation of 7 and 5 carbon sugars in carbon dioxide reduction in photosyntehsis together with some observations on the kinetics of the metabolic transformations. While it is true that a considerable number of significant publications have appears in other aspects of photosynthesis (the Hill reaction and its coupling with carbon dioxide reduction; photochemistry of chlorophyll and related synthetic materials as model reactions in relatively simple defined physical systems; transfer of light energy within the pigment systems) it is felt that they represent confirmation and extension of ideas which have already been discussed in a variety of earlier reviews and that a re-evaluation of them might very well be postponed until a later time