(enhancement effect) The observation (made by Robert Emerson in 1957) that photosynthesis, which proceeds very slowly using light of 700 nm wavelength, can be greatly increased when chloroplasts are also illuminated with light of shorter wavelength (650 nm). This was a surprising observation as it was then thought that light absorbed by the chlorophylls and other pigments was all passed on to a small percentage of chlorophyll a molecules (the energy trap) absorbing at 700 nm. This and later work indicated a second energy trap absorbing at 680 nm. See Photosystems I and II.
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