Hello steemians !
Imagine the world where Human can prepare their own food inside their cells via photosynthesis. Imagine , There is no need tospend much time in cooking foods. Imagine , Just exposure to sunlight for half an hour will fill up your hunger. Isn't this seems cool to you? You can save much of your time and will not need much money to buy foods. And Yes , most importantly Human will not die of starvation.
This idea seems fascinating. A photosynthetic man is a dream project.
Before knowing how photosynthesis works in human it is important to know the structure involved in photosynthesis.
Chloroplast is the main structure that is involved in photosynthesis.Beside it, Mitochondria also plays some role.
WHAT IS CHLOROPLAST?
Chloroplast is a plant cell organelle. It contains a green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll helps to absorb light that helps in photosynthesis.
In photosynthesis , solar energy is converted into chemical energy which is stored in the form of sugar. Carbondioxide, water and light is needed to make glucose, oxygen and water.
The reaction of photosynthesis can be written as:-
6 CO2(g) + 12 H2O(l) + light → C6H12O6(aq) + 6 O2(g) + 6 H2O(l)
IS PHOTOSYNTHETIC ANIMAL POSSIBLE?
Yes, it is possible . The most important thing is to have chloroplast inside the animal cell.So, presence of chloroplast can start photosynthesis in animal. There is plenty of evidences that animal can synthesize food. Here , i will exlpain about two photosynthetic animals-one invertebrate and other vertebrate.
1.Sea Slug - Elysia chlorotica
It is a molluscan .Sea slug eats algae (that contains chloroplast ).These are taken up by phagocytosis in digestive tract. Chloroplast are then incorporated into cells. Reseschers have also found that sea slug also takes photosynthetic gene by lateral gene transfer ( a proceses in which gene is transferred between organism). Due to this reason they can prepare their own food.
Sea slug can survive up to nine months without eating.
2.Spotted Salamander- Ambystoma maculatum
It is the first vertibrate that synthesize their own food.It maintains the symbiotic relationship with algal cells. Chloroplast cells are found inside salamander's cells. This helps them to synthesize food.
So, Is Photosynthetic Human possible ?
Theoretically speaking it is possible. It looks simple- implanting chloroplast in human cells can theoretically and practically leads to photosynthesis. The most difficult portion is to implant chloroplast. Just implanting one hundred to thousand chloroplast inside human cells is not going to work. A giant human body ( compared to salamander) needs more energy. The energy expenditure is even high during walking or performing other daily activities.
An average human skin has surface area of 1.8m2 and half of which would be expossed to sun. Solar radiation of wavelength 400-700nm is considered useful for photosynthesis( called photosynthetically active radiation or PAR). The amount of PAR light energy per unit area per second (Called PAR energy flux density ) is 400W/m2. Photosynthetic efficiency is 5%.
So, energy produced by human body by photosynthesis in an hour would be
400 x (1/2 x 1.8) x 5/100 x 3600 = 64800J = 64.8kj
An apple has 400kJ of energy. Now, you can imagine how much less energy is actually produced by photosynthesis.
[This single piece of apple will give more energy than one hour exposure to sun]
So, practically photosynthesis can occur in human body too but the energy produced by photosynthesis is not sufficient enough to meet the demand.
So, what problem can occur during and after the process ?
The Human body has complex and the advanced immune mechanism. It can easily reject implanted chloroplast. To prevent this we need high doses of immune suppressant. A suppressed immunity leads to high risk of infection and finally to death.
Exposure of a body part to the sunlight may lead to different types of cancer.
And most importantly our skin would be green ( as the color of chlorophyll). This is not a cosmetically a good idea. But with time we all become used to it.
At Last,
Though, it is possible to create photosynthetic man it would not be easy to reduce death due to starvation . There is more harmful aspect than benefit. Even a photosynthetic man would need to eat food for the survival. And more importantly , body will need more water ( for photosynthesis). But, after all, this seems fascinating idea.
1.source 1
2.source 2
3.source 3
4.source 4
Thanks for reading . Any feedback and comments are highly welcome !
DON'T FORGET TO RESTEEM, FOLLOW AND UPVOTE
"So, Is Photosynthetic Human possible ? Theoretically speaking it is possible."
uhm, theoretically anything is possible about anything, with the right dose of twisted arguments.
this is pure non-sense and a bit of knowledge of the intricacies of photosynthesis and its difference compared to mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation would have you refrained from putting this up.
Yes ! everything is possible theoretically.Why i mainly focused in theory is that a practical experiment has not been done in human.When it comes to experimenting directly in human being it is most difficult job. And considered unethical too ! So, a model experiment is done in a mice or a pig(for example).
But you missed the next sentence "it is practically possible but energy production is very less than demand."
Yes, it would have been better if i would have explained about mitochondria too. The topic would have then gone to very deep (to the molecular level).
After all, this is a fiction , a story of imagination ( just like avatar movie or antman). So, it depends upon reader whether a thing is non-sense or makes sense at all.
Thanks for the comment @cristi
wow
Thanks @nx4440
Cool article. Reminds me if "breathaterians"
Hi. Just wanted to say that you inspired me to write this article: https://steemit.com/education/@trumpman/5-solar-powered-animals Feel free to check it if you want :)
Hello. Good idea, but difficult to say impossible.
Follow me
Thanks @alberth
Thanks @steemiteducation
amazing topic, well written and explained, thanks for sharing
upvoted, resteemed and i'll follow you...keep up with similar interesting texts :)
Thank you @laniakae1
Have you ever heard of breatharians? I think they are connected... people who can view the sun without hurting their eyes, and who absorb light from the sun like food. Looking for a link to share, there is a lot of skepticism... but I have experienced this myself. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Breatharianism
something like that but i don't they they photosynthesize their own food.
This topic is in the area of syntheyic biology. I believe synthetic biology will achieve this. Lots of thing are possible now brcause the developments in Genetics. You should mention on Synthetic Biology in your article.
yes @melith..Lets hope someday it will.
I was thinking how many hours we would need to sunbathe to have enough energy to write a simple article for steemit, I believe that it will take so many hours that it would be easier to eat insects. I remembered of insects because I have already read that they could be a solution to reduce hunger in the world.
If I were a photosynthetic human, because I am learning English, this comment would need an entire summer, because even though I have used (besides my brain) google translator and the linguee site to try make this comment error free, It was a strenuous and dusty work.
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