The science behind the sunscreening properties of plants

by earthchild | Jul 10, 2020 | Plant Science

They do that by cleverly producing their own sunscreen – a class of molecules with so called pi-electron systems. These molecules absorb harmful wavelengths by employing the laws of quantum mechanics and electron excitation. In simple terms, when the UV light hits molecules with pi-electron systems, it causes their electrons to change position, thereby absorbing harmful UV energy and dissipating it as heat.