sophisticated recent experiments with ultrashort laser pulses support the idea that intuition-defying quantum interactions between
1 help plants,
2（藻类）, and some bacteria
3 gather light to fuel their growth. but key details of nature's vital light-harvesting
4 remain obscure, and the exact role that quantum physics may play in understanding them is more subtle than was once thought, according to an
5 article in the january issue of bioscience. the article, by jessica m. anna and gregory d. scholes of the university of toronto and rienk van grondelle of vrije universiteit in amsterdam, describes experiments that employ a technique called 2-d electronic spectroscopy. researchers flash laser pulses at the light-harvesting protein molecules of bacteria and algae, timed to within a billionth of a billionth of a second, then observe how the
6 molecules re-emit light of different colors in the
ensuing（接着发生的） instants. this allows
7 to deduce how energy is stored by and moves among the molecules. but the results would be impossible to explain if captured light energy were conveyed by
8（离散的） 9 moving
10 between molecules. rather, the insights of quantum mechanics are needed.
quantum mechanics
11 particles as being
12 over regions of space, rather than being pointlike, and as
13 with each other like waves. the
14 is undetectable in everyday life, but the experimental results indicate that, within arrays of light-harvesting molecules that serve as light "
15" inside cells, such "
16" eases ultrafast energy transfers that help organisms use solar energy. it thus allows life to
17 the planet, using the process known as
18（光合作用） to extract carbon dioxide from the air.
yet anna and her colleagues point out that the
19 details of the light-
20 21 have evolved very differently in different species, so there is nothing simple about how organisms exploit quantum coherence. indeed, coherence, contrary to what some researchers have speculated, does not seem to dominate light gathering by providing an express route for conveying energy from where it is first captured to the chemical reaction center where it is used. instead, anna and her colleagues write, researchers should "inquire how coherence on short length and time scales might seed some kind of property or function" in light-gathering systems. such understanding might help scientists devise environmentally friendly solar technologies that could regulate their rate of energy
22 and redistribute and repair their
23 when the need arises, as living cells do.
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