Photosynthesis

Have you ever wondered who paints the leaves so green or makes the strawberries so juicy and sweet? That’s me. I’m like a tiny, secret chef living inside every green leaf on every plant, tree, and flower. I have a very special recipe, and my most important ingredient is sunshine. I catch the sun's warm rays and use their energy to cook up a delicious meal for the plants. This food helps them grow tall and strong, from the biggest tree in the forest to the smallest blade of grass in your backyard. But I do something else amazing, too. While I'm cooking, I release a special kind of air that you and all the animals need to breathe. So, every time you take a deep breath of fresh air, you can thank me, the planet's secret chef.

For a very long time, I was a complete mystery. People saw plants grow, but they had no idea how I did it. One day, a curious man named Jan van Helmont decided to investigate. He planted a small willow tree in a pot of soil and weighed them both. For five whole years, he only gave the tree water. When he weighed it again, the tree was much, much heavier, but the soil weighed almost the same. He thought, 'Aha. Plants must grow just from water.' He was a little bit right—I definitely need water—but he missed my secret ingredient: the air. About a hundred years later, another clever man named Joseph Priestley got even closer to solving the puzzle. He did a fun experiment. He lit a candle and put a glass jar over it. Poof. The flame went out because it used up all the good air. Then, he did it again, but this time he put a little mint plant under the jar with the candle. He waited a few days and, guess what? He could light the candle again. The plant, with my help, had made more of that special air the flame needed to burn. He even discovered that a mouse could live under the jar if a plant was in there with it. He proved that I make the air fresh and breathable.

After all that clever detective work, people finally gave me a name. Are you ready for it? It’s a big, scientific word, but it describes me perfectly. My name is Photosynthesis. 'Photo' means 'light,' and 'synthesis' means 'putting together.' So, my name literally means 'putting together with light.' And that’s exactly what I do. I take sunlight, water from the ground, and a gas from the air called carbon dioxide, and I put them all together to make sugary food for the plant. My amazing leftover gift from this recipe is oxygen, the very air you need to live and play. So, you see, I am a super important connection between everything on our planet. I connect the giant, fiery sun in the sky to the tiniest green sprout pushing up from the dirt. I connect the tall trees to the little bugs that munch on their leaves. And I connect the plants to you, because when you eat a yummy apple or breathe the fresh air in a park, I am there, working my magic. I am Photosynthesis, and I help keep our whole world alive and growing.