Later in his career, author Jack London, in books like “Burning Daylight” and “Valley of the Moon,” chronicled the bliss of living off the land.rnrnIn doing so, he unknowingly inspired a young prodigy to pursue scientific farming – leveraging experimental research to improve agriculture.rnrnThat boy, Daniel I. Arnon, would go on to study plant micronutrients at the University of California at Berkeley.rnrnDuring World War II, as a major in the U.S. Army, he fed troops stationed on a barren island by farming in nutrient-rich water and gravel.rnrnAfter the war, Arnon discovered and named “photosynthetic phosphorylation,” the process by which chloroplasts – the part of plants where photosynthesis takes place – use sunlight to generate adenosine triphosphate.rnrnCalled ATP, this biochemical is responsible for storing and allocating energy to cells.rnrnThrough this discovery, Arnon’s team was the first to duplicate photosynthesis outside a living cell, painting a better picture of what helps plants survive.