Think you know everything about photosynthesis? Think again! In this video, we bust textbook myths, explore bizarre experiments, and question everything you learned in biology class. Curious where plants REALLY get their carbon? Dive in and join the discussion! Subscribe for more science surprises and comment your favorite mind-blowing moment! #science #plants #photosynthesis #biology #mythbusting
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0:00 - Traditional Photosynthesis Theory Overview
0:30 - Challenging School Textbook Assumptions
1:02 - Agricultural Practice and Photosynthesis Critique
2:11 - Experiments Contradicting Established Theory
3:31 - Atmospheric Composition and Remaining Anomalies
4:28 - Nitrogen, Ammonia, and Theory Contradictions
6:29 - CO2, Glucose, and Sap Mysteries
9:15 - Origin of Plant Carbon and Historical Experiments
đ This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kramola_online
0:00 - Traditional Photosynthesis Theory Overview
0:30 - Challenging School Textbook Assumptions
1:02 - Agricultural Practice and Photosynthesis Critique
2:11 - Experiments Contradicting Established Theory
3:31 - Atmospheric Composition and Remaining Anomalies
4:28 - Nitrogen, Ammonia, and Theory Contradictions
6:29 - CO2, Glucose, and Sap Mysteries
9:15 - Origin of Plant Carbon and Historical Experiments
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TechTranscript
00:00Let's recall what we know about photosynthesis from our school textbooks.
00:03First of all, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen in equal volumes.
00:08Secondly, the process of photosynthesis occurs only in sunlight.
00:13Thirdly, photosynthesis is characteristic only of the green parts of the plant,
00:17that is, the parts containing chlorophyll.
00:20Fourthly, the process of oxygen release occurs only when there is carbon dioxide in the air.
00:25And fifthly, the more carbon dioxide there is in the air, the more oxygen is released.
00:31But in reality, the assumptions on which the theory of photosynthesis is based
00:35do not come from experience, nor from the laws of physics or chemistry,
00:38but from the need to fit the facts to the established views
00:41regarding the chemical composition of water and the atmosphere.
00:44And agronomists all over the world, as well as just people who like to dig in the soil,
00:48encounter anomalies every day that are usually ignored
00:51and that do not fit at all into the seemingly coherent theory of photosynthesis.
00:55Let's spend the next 10 minutes looking at all these anomalous facts.
01:00Let's go!
01:03Agrochemistry never takes into account the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air.
01:07All a plant needs is warmth, moisture, and fertilizer.
01:11The right combination and alternation of these three elements always leads to stable and abundant
01:16harvests, both on large farming operations and at your grandmother's country house.
01:20All the successes of agriculture were achieved, not thanks to, but in spite of, the theory of photosynthesis.
01:26The concept of plant nutrition from the air and plant respiration exists only in theoretical scientific literature and textbooks.
01:33In practical agricultural production, such concepts do not exist.
01:39Just as there are no technologies, operations, measures, or special equipment or devices that would provide plant nutrition from the
01:45air and plant respiration.
01:48There are no words in any language in the world that denote carbon starvation of plants, or carbon dioxide starvation
01:55of plants, or oxygen starvation of plants.
01:58There is not a single case described of plants being suppressed or dying due to the absence of carbon dioxide
02:04or oxygen.
02:05There is not a single experiment that would prove the theory of plant nutrition from the air and plant respiration.
02:10But there are plenty of experiments that disprove this.
02:13For example, a similar experiment was conducted by the naturalist Vadim Lovchikov.
02:18He placed primroses and sprouted bulbs into containers, one of which was filled with pure oxygen, the second with pure
02:24carbon dioxide, and the third aquarium was filled with regular air.
02:29Contrary to the theory, the plants in pure carbon dioxide did not die, and even looked a bit better than
02:35in the other two aquariums.
02:36But in pure oxygen, the plants also did quite well, contrary to the theory, and had a more vibrant green
02:42color.
02:43A similar experiment was conducted and described in 2008, and there, among other things, the plant was placed not only
02:49in pure carbon dioxide, but also in pure nitrogen.
02:52A small flow of nitrogen was created, with nitrogen passing through the container with the plants and out to the
02:58street.
02:58This slight excess pressure eliminated the issue of the container's air tightness.
03:02So, the plant, deprived of the substances necessary for life, should have died quickly, but it continued to live and
03:09develop normally.
03:10Probably because it hadn't read the textbooks on photosynthesis theory.
03:14All these experiments, which any school student can repeat, confirm that plants develop normally in an atmosphere completely devoid of
03:22carbon dioxide.
03:23They also develop just fine, for example, in pure nitrogen.
03:26That is, without oxygen and without carbon dioxide.
03:30Now, let's look at this proportion.
03:33There's very little carbon dioxide in the air.
03:36The CO2 content is literally a few hundredths of a percent, specifically three hundredths of a percent.
03:41And such an amount is absolutely incapable of supporting plant life, because they gain mass too quickly.
03:47And such rates of mass gain contradict the theory of photosynthesis.
03:51There is also another obvious oddity, which is that the percentage of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air differs
03:57by an order of magnitude.
03:59The oddity is that three hundredths of a percent of carbon dioxide supposedly maintain the constancy of 21% of
04:06oxygen in the air.
04:07According to the theory, that's exactly how it should happen.
04:11The absorption of CO2 and the release of O2 should occur in equal volumes.
04:14But then, where does the excess oxygen come from?
04:17After all, oxygen is used up actively and constantly, and in large amounts.
04:22It is involved in oxidation reactions that are either essential for life or destructive to it.
04:28Textbooks say that the source of nitrogen in the air, which makes up the overwhelming majority of the atmosphere, namely
04:3479%, is the result of the activity of putrefactive bacteria.
04:38That is, most of it, specifically four-fifths of the atmosphere's volume, owes its existence to certain types of bacteria.
04:45But this very source is extremely inconsistent in its functioning and cannot provide such precision in supplying the atmosphere with
04:51its main component.
04:53Just think about it.
04:54All the powerful vegetation on Earth, both terrestrial and underwater, according to the theory of photosynthesis, produces 21% of
05:02oxygen.
05:02While not all, but only certain types of microorganisms provide the lion's share, a whole 79% of nitrogen.
05:10At the same time, during the process of decay and decomposition, carbon dioxide and ammonia are formed, not nitrogen.
05:16And if carbon dioxide makes up only 0.03%, in the atmosphere, then the amount of ammonia is practically within
05:22the margin of error, 0.003%.
05:25What the?
05:27Plants are not able to absorb nitrogen from the air.
05:30But why are they able to absorb carbon dioxide, which is present in the air in a tiny amount, but
05:37can't absorb nitrogen, which is no less essential, and makes up four-fifths of the air's volume, and instead, as
05:43it's believed, take it from the soil?
05:45The intensity of the photosynthesis process varies greatly depending on the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, the level
05:52of light, the change between day and night, and the time of year.
05:55These processes are extremely uneven, and for the same reasons, the oxygen content in the air must also depend on
06:01and change to the same extent, including in different regions of the globe.
06:04But this proportion is very constant and does not change across the entire planet.
06:08At the poles and at the equator, in winter and in summer, the proportion remains unchanged.
06:13From the point of view of photosynthesis, this is not just an anomaly.
06:17This should not be the case.
06:18There should not be any constancy in the percentage composition of air at any time of year, at any time
06:23of day, in deserts and over oceans, in tropical forests and over the planet's ice caps.
06:29But maybe we made all this up?
06:31Well, let's open a textbook.
06:33Professor Rubin, in the book Plant Physiology, writes,
06:36Carbon dioxide is the most important material substrate of photosynthesis.
06:42To produce one gram of glucose, you need to use the amount of CO2 contained in two and a half
06:47thousand liters of air.
06:49To produce a kilogram of sugar, a plant needs to process about two and a half million liters, or 500
06:56cubic meters, completely removing all the carbon dioxide contained in it.
07:02When the carbon dioxide content in the air is extremely low, plants, you could say, literally have to catch it
07:08using their various adaptations.
07:11Among these are primarily the stomata, which are the main pathway for CO2 to enter the leaf.
07:18Just think about these numbers.
07:20It's like some kind of industrial ventilation system.
07:24How intensely must the plant work as a pump to pass two and a half thousand liters of air through
07:29the leaf stomata,
07:30just to end up with a single gram of glucose, which fits on the tip of a teaspoon?
07:36But even if we assume the existence of such a ventilation system, it contradicts plant physiology.
07:43After all, leaves are under constant pressure higher than atmospheric, including their spongy part.
07:48This is exactly how the shape of the leaves and their position in the crown are maintained.
07:52Therefore, in order for air to get into the upper part of the leaf, a low-pressure area needs to
07:57be created there.
07:57Animals have respiratory organs and muscles, lungs, a diaphragm, and many other things for this purpose.
08:02But leaves don't have anything like that.
08:07There is a word, sap.
08:09This is the plant's sap at the cut end of the stem coming from the root system.
08:15Sap is rich in organic compounds, organic acids, amino acids, and protein.
08:20Where do the organic substances in the roots of the plant come from, if, according to the theory,
08:26the only source of such substances is carbon dioxide from the air, supposedly absorbed by the leaves,
08:31and then converted there into organic compounds?
08:34The theory of photosynthesis explains it as follows.
08:37Organic compounds synthesized from carbon dioxide in the leaves travel to the root system,
08:41where a new secondary synthesis occurs between the organic compounds that have descended from above
08:46and the mineral substances which, in turn, have been absorbed through the roots.
08:50Then all of this, together with the sap, rises back up to the leaves.
08:54But the process of sap bleeding, or in other words, the secretion of sap,
08:59can continue for many hours without losing its intensity.
09:02And during this time, the sap consistently remains rich in organic compounds.
09:06This also occurred in cases where the plants, during the experiments,
09:10were completely deprived of their above-ground parts along with the leaves.
09:15Well, alright.
09:16How did it happen that the theory of photosynthesis came about at all?
09:20This theory arose as an answer to a seemingly simple question.
09:23Where does the plant get the carbon from, which it uses to build its plant mass?
09:27It was demonstrated by straightforward experiments that plants cannot take it from the soil,
09:32nor can they extract it from water, which, according to its chemical formula, does not contain it.
09:36So air remained the only environment where it was possible to triumphantly find the source of carbon.
09:42Hence this logical chain.
09:44Air.
09:45Water.
09:45Leaves.
09:46Photosynthesis.
09:47But it wasn't always like this.
09:49Initially, it was believed that plants obtained organic substances specifically from water.
09:54The first scientist to quantitatively demonstrate the importance of water for the life of plants
09:58was the Dutch naturalist Van Helmond, who conducted his experiments more than 400 years ago.
10:04Wishing to determine what contributes to the formation of plant matter, Van Helmond planted a willow branch
10:10in a clay pot with soil and regularly watered it with rainwater and distilled water for five years.
10:16After five years, he weighed the plant and the soil separately.
10:19It turned out that during this time, the willow gained about 75 kilograms in weight,
10:24not counting the weight of the leaves lost by the willow over four autumns.
10:27At the same time, the soil lost only 57 grams.
10:31Since almost half, specifically 45% of the plant's composition is carbon, the question arises,
10:37where does the plant get so much carbon from?
10:40Based on the results of experiments by Van Helmond, Saussure, and other physiologists of
10:44that time, it would be logical to look for carbon in water.
10:47This view persisted for more than a hundred years, until in 1784, the famous French chemist
10:53Lavoisier wrote his work on the analysis of atmospheric air.
10:57In this work, it was proven that water consists of only two simple elements, hydrogen and oxygen.
11:03From that moment on, the only place left to look for carbon was in the air.
11:07However, alternative viewpoints on where the carbon in plants comes from still exist today.
11:13But that's a topic for a separate big episode, and we'll definitely prepare it if you're interested.
11:18Give us feedback with a like and a comment, and turn on notifications so you don't miss it.
11:22See you on Cremola!