Melvin CalvinBorn 8 Apr 1911; died 8 Jan 1997 at age 85.Melvin Ellis Calvin was an American biochemist who was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for furthering our knowledge of the mechanism of photosynthesis. In the Calvin Cycle, he described the “dark reactions” of photosynthesis occuring in green plants through the night turning carbon dioxide into sugar. Using carbon-14 isotope as a tracer in carbon dioxide, Calvin and his team identified the complete route as the carbon atom travels through a plant during photosynthesis, from the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide to its incorporation into carbohydrates and other organic compounds. With his group, Calvin showed that the sunlight acts on the chlorophyll molecules in a plant, and not on the carbon dioxide (as had been previously believed).« |