The research group of Professor Nobuo Kamiya (The OCU Advanced Research Institute for Natural Science and Technology (OCARINA), Osaka City University) and Professor Jian-Ren Shen (Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University) succeeded in unraveling part of the mystery of the photosynthetic reaction that lets sunlight split water, creating oxygen. They explain how sunlight can be changed into chemical energy that can be used by living organisms. Their finding is an epoch making result that will contribute to find solutions for worldwide environmental, energy and food problems.

The research results have been published by Nature as an Advance On-line Publication on 17 April 2011:
"Crystal structure of oxygen-evolving photosystem II at a resolution of 1.9 ? "
Authors: Yasufumi Umena, Keisuke Kawakami, Jian-Ren Shen, Nobuo Kamiya

For a summary of the article, please see:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature09913.html