Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have discovered a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. Plants are growing in complete darkness in an acetate medium that replaces biological photosynthesis. (Marcus Harland-Dunaway/UCR) The research, published in Nature…