Science: How to Make Chlorophyll

Scientists have known for almost two centuries that plants, in one of nature's most mysterious processes, use sunlight to make sugar, fats and other high-energy chemicals out of water and carbon diox ide. They have known for more than one century that this vital food-making process—photosynthesis, the prime mover of life on eartn—is accompusned by chlorophyll, a strange, green substance whose molecule has a single atom of magnesium framed like a jewel in its center. Generations of chemists have tried to synthesize chlorophyll—and failed. But last week Harvard University announced that Professor...