Serenade the Sun

It's amazing what a ball of mostly iron will do if you shine a light at it for four billion years.

'Dawn sun worship' by Philip Alexander

We've finished our course content in TAL biology so today we were looking back with the theme of light. This year is the UN International Year of Light and our Sun is the reason we are here: From what you ate today and how you traveled to where you are, to how life survived long enough for humans to evolve. We found eight biological processes that respond to light...

Plants:

• Phototropism - When shoots grow towards the light, and roots away.
• Photosynthesis - Nature's solar panel: converting light energy into sugar since the first oceans.
• Phytochromes - Pigments that control when a plant flowers or a seed germinates.
• Etiolation - More a response to the absence of light, when plants stretch under a rock.

Humans:

• Iris reflex - Controls the amount of light that enters the eye.
• Sight - The obvious one: Perceiving light rays as images.
• Tanning - Pigmentation of the skin.
• Vitamin D - Amazingly we can make a vitamin in our skin!

Add more in the comments!