Fig. 1. The fundamental actions of photosynthesis. (1) Light harvesting. (2) Charge-separation. (3) Redox catalysis. Notice that energy transfer occurs between chromophores (green arrows) after excitation to funnel the energy to the special pair where it leads to charge separation. Some energy losses are required to drive the charge separation forward. Charges are moved to catalysts that drive uphill chemical reactions. Adapted with permission from ref. 8.