十万个为什么·科学启蒙30篇（2）
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How Do Plants Make Their Own Food?
植物如何自己制造食物？
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Plants produce glucose — a simple sugar — through a process called photosynthesis, which literally means 'putting together with light'.
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They absorb sunlight using chlorophyll, a green pigment found mainly in leaves, and convert light energy into chemical energy.
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Carbon dioxide enters the plant through tiny pores called stomata, while water travels upward from roots through vascular tissue.
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Inside leaf cells, sunlight energizes electrons that help combine CO₂ and H₂O into glucose and oxygen.
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The overall chemical equation is: 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂.
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Oxygen, a vital byproduct, is released into the air — meaning every breath you take depends partly on this process.
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Without photosynthesis, there would be almost no oxygen or organic food chains on Earth.
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Some bacteria perform similar processes, but only plants, algae, and cyanobacteria do it on a global scale.