Tiny Virus Shells Become Molecular Solar Factories for Artificial Photosynthesis
Deep in the laboratory of the University of South Bohemia, a team of scientists has done something that would have sounded like science fiction just a decade ago: they took a virus that infects bacteria, hollowed it out, stuffed it with a photosynthetic protein and an electron-carrying partner, and turned the whole assembly into a working solar-powered nanoreactor. The result, published this week on arXiv, is a modular molecular toolkit that could rewrite how we think about artificial photosynthesis — and eventually, how we produce fuels, chemicals, and medicines using nothing but sunlight.