The roiling plasma surface of the sun flings out a fistful of light. The particles—billions of photons—hurtle 93 million miles through black space to rain down like bread and honey on the outstretched flesh of the most abundant living mass on earth. Plants eat light. Photosynthesis, so basic to plants, is the prerequisite for most every other life form on earth. Through photosynthesis, plants suffuse the air with the oxygen we breathe. How did we get here? A billion and a half years ago, an alga-like cell swallowed a cyanobacteria. That alga-like cell was the early organism from which both
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