Introduction Photosynthesis is a biological process that specific plant cells and some prokaryotes undergo in order to harvest energy

from sunlight and store it as chemical energy in the form of glucose, which can be used for other biological processes. Organisms that obtain nutrition through photosynthesis are called photoautotrophs. The reactants and products of Photosynthesis can be represented by the equation: Light energy +6 CO2 + 6 H2O 6O2 + C6H12O6 The products of photosynthesis are not only crucial to biological processes within the plant, but also for biological processes in other organisms. The levels of oxygen in our atmosphere are maintained by photosynthesis, and atmospheric oxygen is necessary for aerobic respiration which takes place in many organisms including humans to harvest chemical energy, and the presence of atmospheric oxygen led to the creation of the ozone layer which protects many organisms from harmful solar radiation. In plant cells, photosynthesis occurs in special organelles called chloroplasts. Photosynthesis can be divided into two separate but connected processes: the light dependent reactions and the light independent reactions (the Calvin cycle). The light dependent reactions occur in photosystems, where light is absorbed by accessory pigments, exciting their electrons and as a result the electrons move from pigment to pigment until they reach the reaction centre until they reach the primary electron acceptor. The thylakoid membrane in plant cells consists of two photosystems which allow the excited electrons to move in an electron transport chain, creating ATP through chemiosmosis and fuelling the production of NADPH, both of which are used in the light independent reactions. Since accessory pigments and the chlorophyll molecules absorb different wavelengths of light, the rate of photosynthesis should be and has demonstrated to have been affected by the wavelength of light directed at the cells.