The nitrogen fix

摘要

When it comes to the natural processes of plants, photosynthesis tends to hog attention. If researchers could efficiently copy the ability to convert sunlight to energy, chemists promise, our energy problems would be over. They have not managed it yet. They have had more luck with harnessing and mimicking the less-heralded, but just as important, process of nitrogen fixation-the conversion of nitrogen from the air into ammonia, which can be used by plants to make DNA, RNA and proteins, and by industry to make fertilizers and explosives. On page 84, chemists announce the discovery of an important piece of the puzzle. Jonas Peters and his colleagues at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena have identified a small iron complex that efficiently catalyses the conversion.