Photosynthesis Inspires "Green Fuel" Breakthrough | The Institute for Creation Research

Photosynthesis Inspires "Green Fuel" Breakthrough

An international team of researchers has developed the first man-made device capable of using sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which is a key process in photosynthesis.

The Monash University-led scientists, whose research appears in the international edition of the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie,1 were able to combine manganese atom clusters with a proton-conducting material called Nafion. When the conductor material was exposed to a combination of sunlight and low-voltage electricity, the manganese—an element essential to plant photosynthesis—interacted with water, causing it to split into hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, and electrons. “The breakthrough could revolutionise the renewable energy industry by making hydrogen—touted as the clean, green fuel of the future—cheaper and easier to produce on a commercial scale,” stated a Monash University press release.2

The researchers took their design cues from pre-existing plant structures and the process of photosynthesis. “We have copied nature, taking the elements and mechanisms found in plant life that have evolved over 3 billion years and recreated one of those processes in the laboratory,” Monash Professor Leone Spiccia said.2

This statement presents a curiosity. It assumes that the “elements and mechanisms” of plants are the result of evolution, but this assumption cannot be scientifically verified, as we do not presently observe nature making new complex, living machines. Also, the micro-machines found in plants are vastly more efficient, elegant, and complicated than this new man-made process. Plant photosynthesis involves the coordinated efforts of dozens of specifically-shaped proteins, including thousands of molecular rotary motors in each cell. These are all anchored on a hydrogen-repelling membrane, and wrapped within a selectively protective structure called a chloroplast.

Could the selection of random mutations, as neo-Darwinists propose, have led to such an amazingly coordinated, sophisticated system? The most that current research can do, having left no part to randomness, is to produce a pale copy of just one part of photosynthesis.

Where did photosynthesis come from? Those who develop machines by copying the ordered processes of intricate, efficient machines found in nature ought to recognize that millions of years could not, and thus did not, build them. Nevertheless, Professor Spiccia stated that his team was able to split water by using “the very chemical that nature has selected for this purpose."2

Inanimate objects and undirected processes, no matter what their ages are projected to be, are not observed to “select” things—scientists, inventors, and other rational beings are. Therefore, the more reasonable possibility is that the Creator God created manganese, then selected it as a catalyst to supply the oxygen and plant growth necessary for life here on earth.

References

  1. Robin Brimblecombe, R. et al. 2008. Sustained Water Oxidation Photocatalysis by a Bioinspired Manganese Cluster. Angewandte Chemie. Published online August 1, 2008, in advance of print.
  2. Monash team learns from nature to split water. Monash University press release, August 18, 2008.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer.

Article posted on August 29, 2008.

The Latest
NEWS
Marine Mammals: Designed for Deep Diving
While you’re reading this, hold your breath. What is now happening is your blood is delivering the last of oxygenated blood cells to your tissues...

CREATION PODCAST
Humanity's Demise at the Hands of Genetic Entropy | The Creation...
Welcome to the fourth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
''Inside-Out'' Fossil is Amazingly Preserved
It is widely known that vast numbers of fossils—vertebrate and invertebrate—have been discovered incredibly well-preserved.1,2...

NEWS
The Resurrection and the Origin of Life
At Easter time we focus on the cardinal Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Christianity is a sham. The truth that Jesus...

NEWS
Is an Ancient Extinct Tree-Dweller Our Relative?
Human evolution has always been hazy with seemingly as many attempted explanations for how we evolved from animals as there are paleoanthropologists. Evolutionists...

NEWS
The Return of the Dire Wolf?
There’s been much recent excitement about the birth of three dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) puppies by a Dallas-based biotech company: Colossal Bioscience....

CREATION PODCAST
Cracks in the Layers: Lake Suigetsu and the Old Earth Illusion...
Welcome to the third episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
Fish Fossil Vomit
A rather unsavory news story recently appeared regarding fossilized vomit. Although it’s hardly dinner table conversation, it nonetheless supports...

NEWS
Dino Footprints Down Under
Dinosaur trackways1 are once again making the news. Australia is the setting of a remarkable series of dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithischian...

NEWS
April 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things...