Tareas

Introduction
Pigments are chemical compounds which reflect only certain wavelengths of visible light. This makes them appear "colorful". Flowers, corals, and even animal skin contain pigments whichgive them their colors. More important than their reflection of light is the ability of pigments to absorb certain wavelengths. Because they interact with light to absorb only certain wavelengths,pigments are useful to plants and other autotrophs --organisms which make their own food using photosynthesis. In plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, pigments are the means by which the energy of sunlightis captured for photosynthesis. However, since each pigment reacts with only a narrow range of the spectrum, there is usually a need to produce several kinds of pigments, each of a different color, tocapture more of the sun's energy. Chlorophylls are greenish pigments which contain a porphyrin ring. This is a stablering-shaped molecule around which electrons are free to migrate. Because the electrons move freely, the ring has the potential to gain or lose electrons easily, and thus the potential to provide energizedelectrons to other molecules. This is the fundamental process by which chlorophyll "captures" the energy of sunlight. There are several kinds of chlorophyll, the most important being chlorophyll "a".This is the molecule which makes photosynthesis possible, by passing its energized electrons on to molecules which will manufacture sugars. All plants, algae, and cyanobacteria which photosynthesizecontain chlorophyll "a". A second kind of chlorophyll is chlorophyll "b", which occurs only in "green algae" and in the plants. A third form of chlorophyll which is common is (not surprisingly) calledchlorophyll "c", and is found only in the photosynthetic members of the Chromista as well as the dinoflagellates. The difference between the chlorophylls of these major groups was one of the first...