Popeye and his Spinach!

Popeye is way before our time but through boomerang and early mornings with a bowl of cereal TV has influenced us that eating spinach will give you the strength of 100 men. Oh and also make you able to fight Brutus and win the heart of your significant other. For these scientist spinach has a different kind of power: the ability to convert sunlight into a clean alternative fuel.
"Purdue University physicists are part of an international group using spinach to study the proteins involved in photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert the sun's energy into carbohydrates used to power cellular processes.

"The proteins we study are part of the most efficient system ever built, capable of converting the energy from the sun into chemical energy with an unrivaled 60 percent efficiency," said Yulia Pushkar, a Purdue assistant professor of physics involved in the research. "Understanding this system is indispensible for alternative energy research aiming to create artificial photosynthesis."

During photosynthesis plants use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrogen-storing carbohydrates and oxygen. Artificial photosynthesis could allow for the conversion of solar energy into renewable, environmentally friendly hydrogen-based fuels."

Purdue physics professor Yulia Pushkar (left) and postdoctoral researcher Lifen Yan work in Pushkar's laser lab. Pushkar and Yan are part of an international team using spinach to study the proteins involved in photosynthesis.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140723152023.htm