How to re-wire Photosynthesis | Dr Jenny Zhang | TEDxLiverpool

Beating nature at photosynthesis has been a noble and ambitious goal of scientists for the past century. The dream is to develop artificial photosynthesis as a means of providing sustainable and clean energy to the world. So far, progress in solar hydrogen production has been promising, but what about for more complex fuels? Instead of competing with photosynthesis, we are now starting to think of ways to merge the strengths of natural and artificial photosynthesis to start harvesting solar energy in new ways.

It’s universally accepted that our current energy sources are not sustainable. Overuse of fossil fuels is creating a climate crisis. Dr Jenny Zhang is a Cambridge University chemist who believes she might be able to find an answer to this massive problem in the form of artificial photosynthesis. Could we mimic the natural photosynthesis we see in plants and use this energy to power our world?

Jenny is a highly interdisciplinary chemist who is about to start her research group at the University of Cambridge in sustainable energy research. After obtaining her PhD from the University of Sydney in Australia, she joined the University of Cambridge as a Marie Curie Fellow in 2013 to research how photosynthetic enzymes convert light energy into chemicals.

In addition to conducting cutting-edge research, Jenny is also passionate about communicating the magic of leading-edge scientific research to wider audiences outside of academic institutions. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx