In its fundamental unit, snowflakes represent modules of water, whereas diatoms represent organic units of petroleum (Picture 6.5). In its original form, symmetry exists but only in broad sense. There is no local symmetry. Picture 6.6 shows various images of snow flakes. If diamonds are from charcoal, petroleum is from diatoms (Picture 6.7). Table 6.10 shows various sources of water on earth.

Water and hydrocarbon are both essential to life, even though they play contrasting roles. Table 6.11 shows some of the unifying and contrasting features of water and petroleum.

The above opposites signal complimentary nature of water and petroleum. At a molecular level, the following reactions of opposites can be observed.

The result is water vapor, with a standard enthalpy of reaction at 298.15 °K and 1 atm of −242 kJ/mol. While this equation is well known, it cannot be stated that original water or natural water is created this way. In fact, all evidence suggest that it is not and the suggestion that oxygen and hydrogen combined to form water as the basis of life bears the same first premise as the one imposed for the Big Bang theory. What we know, however, is if hydrogen burns in oxygen, it produces intense heat (around 2000 °C) as compared to heat of a natural flame (e.g., from candle) that is around 1000 °C. The above reaction does not take place unless there is a presence of two other components, one tangible (catalyst) and one intangible (spark), that produce a flame. A discussion on what constitutes a flame and its consequences is presented later on in this chapter.

This reaction needs a spark that itself has catalysts (tangible) and energy (intangible). However, in nature water does not form by combining oxygen and hydrogen. One theory indicates water is the original matter as contrast to popular theory that puts hydrogen as the original mass (Islam et al., 2014b). Only recently this theory has gained ground as astrophysicists continue to find evidence of water in outer space (Farihi et al., 2011). Table 6.12 lists the fundamental properties of oxygen and hydrogen. Table 6.13 highlights qualities that unite and contrast oxygen and hydrogen.

The above reaction takes place at all temperature (e.g., low-temperature oxidation). However, the most natural, yet rapid conversion takes place with fire. Fire itself has tangible (mass of fire) and energy (heat of reaction, intangible). Table 6.14 lists the fundamental properties of oxygen and carbon. Table 6.15 highlights qualities that unite and contrast oxygen and carbon.

The above contrasting and complementary properties of hydrogen and oxygen and oxygen and carbon give rise to water and fire, respectively, creating a new set of contrasting and complementary components. Together, they form the basic ingredients of life on earth and exemplify natural sustainability.

Historically, water has always been recognized as the source matter of everything (Islam et al., 2010). As in early ancient Greek, ancient Chinese, and ancient Mesopotamia, water has been considered as the one that gives life while fire is the one that causes death. For fire to exist and complete the cycle of life, it must be accompanied with fuel, which is the essence of energy. The most efficient source of this fuel is natural gas.

The existence of water as a fundamental element is important. Ancient literature as well as Qur'an places the existence of water before anything else. In every culture water is synonymous with life and liveliness. Opposite to water is fire (number Two) at the lower left corner. The role of fire is opposite to water, yet it is essential to life. Without fire, there is no carbon dioxide, the essence of plant, and therefore, life. Fire represents transition from cold to hot, from life to death, from tangible (water or liquid) to intangible (vapor or gas). This phase change is typical of creation. In fact, the very fact that everything is moving (a function of time) makes it essential to go through this phase of tangible and intangible. Overall, this continues in an eternal circle.

Qur'an mentions water (m’aa) as the original creation. This “water” is not a combination of hydrogen and oxygen atoms as asserted in New Science, it is the essence of life in Arabic. The word, m’aet that stands for dehydration actually stands for moribund or dying. The following verse of Qur'an states:

Also, see the following hadith that compliments the above notion and clarifies the fundamental traits of both creator and creation, as well as the purpose of humans:

Another verse of Qur'an has issued the following warning to humans:

Water is the essence of life and it is to be noted that Allah calls Himself “Al-Hayyu” (The Alive), who never feels drowsiness or slumber (Qur'an 2:255). Death is associated with every entity of the creation and sleep is called synonymous to death (soul removed when someone sleeps). So, life and death are part of being creation.

“Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?” (Qur'an 21:30)

It is of interest to note, New Science puts water as the first indicator of life. The search of water continues even in outside of our galactic reach. Only recently, such existence has been “confirmed” (Farihi et al., 2011).

According to Qur'anic narration, universe has no void and it is filled with water, which is the essence of life. However, at no time this means isolated water molecules and any other “fundamental” unit of water. Each particle is tagged with its own time function and forms integral part of the universal order.

The standard enthalpy of reaction for methane combustion at 298.15 °K and 1 atm is −802 kJ/mol. The symbol Σ signifies the time function that stores information regarding intangibles (Islam et al., 2010a), such as the history of methane (organic or otherwise), history of oxygen (organic or mechanical, as well as the collection of all elements that are present in nonmeasurable quantities. The usefulness of Σ is in its ability to track the history in order to chart the future pathway in terms of harm and beneficial quality. For instance, if the oxygen supply is restricted, the following reaction will take place, in stead of Eqn (6.2).

This reaction is typical of industry-standard producer gas that is produced by injecting oxygen through hot coke. The resulting gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide (25%), carbon dioxide (4%), nitrogen (70%), and traces of hydrogen (H₂), methane (CH₄), and oxygen (O₂). In addition to this information, Σ will also contain information regarding any other trace elements that can be present due to use of catalyst, heating mechanism, existence of flames, etc. In essence, Σ is the tracker of intangibles.

Any combustion reaction is known to be accelerated dramatically in presence of a flame. A flame is a mixture of reacting gases and solids emitting visible, infrared, and sometimes ultraviolet light, the frequency spectrum of which depends on the chemical composition of the burning material and intermediate reaction products. A standard and beneficial flame is fire, arising from burning wood. This process of heat and light generation is entirely sustainable (Chhetri and Islam, 2008) and produces no harmful or by-product, therefore, it is waste-free (Khan and Islam, 2012). The fundamental characteristic of this wood flame is that combustion is incomplete, thereby generating incandescent solid particles, called soot. It comes with red-orange glow of fire. This light has continuous spectrum, similar to sunlight spectrum. Even though it is rarely talked about, the orange glow of wood fire is also similar to the glow of sun. See Picture 6.8.

Light intensity or energy, efficiency, and quality are functions of the light source composition. The light source is composed of infinite particles with different sizes, d_i, masses, m_i, and temperature, T_i. The light source mass equals:

A particle energy function equals:

The light energy of a particle i is also defined as follows:

Combining Eqns (6.6) and (6.7) yields:

Then, the frequency f_i for the particle i comes to:

As a result, the particle speed v_i amounts to:

The total light energy is the sum of all particle energy values.

The wavelength is the inverse of the frequency:

The distance traveled by a particle i is a function of its size, d_i, mass, m_i, and temperature, T_i. The particle mass, m_i, depends on the particle composition. Since this particle i consists of the smallest particle in the universe, its composition is unique and corresponds to one material.

The density of the particle i is:

The distance traveled by light particle is described by:

which is equivalent to:

The solar light spectrum is shown in Figure 6.20. Sunlight as the source of energy on earth must be understood in the context of photosynthesis reaction that creates vegetation on earth. Table 6.16 shows the composition of the sun. Considering some 8000 tons of loss of mass per second from the sun, it is reasonable to assume most of the mass loss involves hydrogen. Consequently, this hydrogen must constitute the most active role in photosynthesis. It is indeed the case. Compare the picture with the following picture of wood burning fire (Picture 6.9). Furthermore, this composition is important in terms of overall elemental balance of the ecosystem. It is also important for consideration of beneficial energy. If nature is taken to be perfect and beneficial, solar energy as well as the elements present in the sun must be in beneficial form and should be considered to be the standard of energy.

All vegetation on earth starts off with solar energy. If the artificial barrier between energy and mass is removed, immediate consequence of solar irradiation would be manifested in the light spectrum of sunlight. Interestingly, the most abundant section of the solar light spectrum is the section that produces visible light (wavelength range of 400–750 nm). Table 6.17 lists wavelengths of various visible color lights.

All wavelengths beyond these wavelengths of visible light are inherently harmful. The premise that nature is perfect leads to the conclusion that other rays are also necessary but their intensity must be very low, in line with the corresponding low intensities Table 6.18 lists wavelengths of various known waves.

It is important to identify the sources of nonvisible rays. While we know all of them are emitted from the sun, Table 6.19 shows artificial sources of the same waves. Because artificial sources render these rays inherently unnatural, they make natural materials vulnerable to harm.

For every natural ray, there is an artificial version. While each of the natural rays is essential and beneficial, the artificial counterpart is harmful to natural objects. Khan et al. (2008) demonstrated the nature of such artificial mass or energy by eliminating the assumption that transition from mass to energy is discrete and nonreactive.

Given the various pigments, and the areas they are most abundant, that Chlorophyll a & b, and to a lesser extent, the various carotenoids (such as carotene and xanthophyll) would be the most productive in the absorption of light for photosynthesis. When applying this to cultivation and artificial lights, it would seem logical to choose lights that peak in the 430–470 nm and 640–680 nm range, to allow the two main chlorophyll types to gather the most energy. Light in the blue spectrum may also be a little stronger to allow the carotenes and xanthophylls to absorb more light as well. Figure 6.21 shows the existence of these wavelengths in visible light.

If the fundamental premise that natural is beneficial and artificial is harmful (Khan and Islam, 2012) is invoked, the picture depicted by Figure 6.22 emerges.

Of importance in the above graph is the notion that artificial rays are harmful at all times. As the exposure is increased, the harm is accentuated. For the short-term, artificial visible light is less harmful than artificial nonvisible rays (e.g., gamma ray, X-ray, etc.) on both sides of the spectrum (both long wavelengths and short ones). The reason for such behavior has been discussed by Khan and Islam (2012) and will be discussed later in this section. The above graph follows the same form as the wavelength spectrum of visible sunlight (Figure 6.23).

Figure 6.24 recasts visible colors on intensity of solar radiation for the visible light section. This figure confirms that green vegetation should be the most abundant color on earth for which the sun is the only natural source of energy. This figure also shows that the area under the intensity–wavelength curve is the greatest for green materials. Red has longer wavelength but their intensity in sunlight is much smaller than green lights.

Figure 6.25 plots radiance values for various wavelengths observed in forest fire as compared to grass and warm ground. For the visible light range, forest fire follows the same trend as grass very closely. Also, comparable is warm ground. For the invisible range, however, forest fire produces high radiance values for larger (than infrared) values. For wavelengths larger than 2 mm, both fire and warm ground produce similar radiance, whereas grass does not show any radiation.

Oxidation of butane creates a blue flame. Typically, the separation of one particular component of a natural material skews the balance that a whole natural material would have. The burning of butane is, therefore, a skewed version of forest fire. Figure 6.26 shows how the butane flame produces spikes in the wavelength versus irradiance graph. This light, even though they are from a natural source, lacks balance—the likes of which persisted with sunlight and forest fire. Such imbalance would lead to harm of organic bodies, similar to the one shown in Figure 6.39 (bifurcation graph above) However, modern engineering typically ignores this fact and manufactures artificial material (energy or matter) that are similar to the natural counterpart only in the external features. For instance, for the case of electronic books, the main feature is to produce writings/pictures on a white background. All colors are artificial but white background is the most toxic because of its deviation from natural light spectrum. Figure 6.27 shows the light spectrum for Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7, and new iPad. Compare these spectra with that of sunlight and further consider irradiation from a white page compared to irradiation from an electronic device. It becomes clear that the artificial device is both imbalanced and will create long-term harm to humans as well as the environment.

Figure 6.28 shows sunlight along with light produced from a paraffin candle, incandescent light, and other light sources. Note how red LED is the most skewed from sunlight spectrum. The deviation is the most in visible light zone (wavelength of 400–750 nm). With the exception of two spikes at 600 nm and 700 nm, red LED produces very little irradiation in the visible light zone, whereas it produces much higher irradiation in the infrared zone and beyond. Fluorescent light produces similar spikes at 600 nm and 700 nm points but with less intensity than red LED. Overall, candle is the only one among artificial light that produces a broad band of wavelengths. In terms of harm to the environment, red LED is the worst offender, followed by fluorescent, then incandescent, and finally candle light. This vulnerability ranking is done by comparing the area under the curve within the visible light zone (Figure 6.29).

If sunlight represents the original and the most beneficial energy source, any natural process emerging from sunlight will become beneficial. Let us consider forest fire. It comes from a flame that trees or vegetation as the most important ingredient. All vegetations are indeed a product of natural processing of sunlight, air, water, and carbon components.

When a flame is visible, oxidation of wood is rapid. As oxidation takes place, movement of each particle within the system is greatly enhanced, creating a sharp increase in natural frequencies of every particle. For instance, a solid can burn into gases unleashing natural frequency change for each particle. The recent model developed by Islam et al. (2014a) describes this process as equivalent to merger of two galaxies in which each of them has numerous components with respective natural frequencies. However, after the reaction occurs (oxidation in this case), the resulting products have a frequency that is different from previous ones. If each particle is tagged, this model can help track a natural process apart from an artificial process. Figure 6.30 shows how this model casts the number of particles with their respective numbers in a natural system. Here, no distinction is made between light and mass particles as imposing such a distinction is contrary to natural order and renders the model aphenomenal.

Figure 6.30 shows how any natural flame will have a smooth spectrum as shown in the spectrum of the sunlight. Any alteration of light source would create a spectrum that is not natural, hence harmful. The above figure also indicates that photon emission is similar to any other radiation from a body of mass. This emission within the visible wavelengths is related to the existence of a flame. Even though a flame is typical of visible light emission, most recent theories indicate the presence of continuous emission throughout the entire spectrum.

As a flame burns, the characteristic features of each particle changes drastically. Figure 6.31 shows how dust specks (similar to pulverized graphite) present an optimum case in terms of stability. This state is typical of a solid state. This state represents the most stable as well as most nonreactive or conservative state of matter. At subatomic level, a reversal in characteristic versus particle size trend line takes place and the speed increases as the particle size becomes smaller.

Such transition from matter to energy (light) can explain the existence of a flame. In addition, this treatment of matter and energy enables one to track the source of light pollution. The onset of flame is invariably associated with a temperature rise, which in turn triggers vigorous changes in particles, leading to the formation of different structures that are similar to the galaxy in mega scale.

Because of the change in characteristic speed due to the onset of a flame that invariably follows changes in temperature, heat being the result of particle motion triggers radiation. Such connection of radiation with particle movement and heat of reaction is new (Islam et al., 2014a).

The rate of emission is a strong function of temperature and is responsible for changing color of the flame. As stated earlier, radiation takes place in all values of spectrum. Much of the radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands, as seen earlier in the context of forest fire. The color of a flame depends on temperature (for the black-body radiation), and on composition of the emission spectra. The photo of the forest fire in Canada is an excellent example of this variation (Picture 6.10).

Let us review the colors of a flame (with carbon particles emitting light) for various temperatures. Table 6.20 shows the temperature for various colors of flame. With these colors, one can analyze the above forest fire.

Near the ground, where most burning is occurring, the fire is white, the hottest color possible for organic material in general, or yellow. Above the yellow region, the color changes to orange, which is cooler, then red, which is cooler still. Above the red region, the flame is no longer visible. The black smoke that is visible is essentially pulverized carbon particles. These particles form the soot. The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In micro gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection slows down significantly, leading to a more symmetric shape of the black smoke. This is almost a spherical flame with a blue center. While the presence of blue indicates perfect combustion, such flame cannot be sustained as the produced CO₂ tend to smother the flame, especially around the connection between carbon matter and the flame. There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is sufficiently evenly distributed that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in micro gravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. Existing theories cannot account for such dependence of gravity on color of a region within the flame. This is because zero mass is assigned for both photon and Higgs boson. If that spurious assumption is removed, flames in any location can be explained with the emerges of a flame as the trigger event.

Picture 6.11 show the color of burning cars. They essentially represent burning of artificial carbon material (e.g., plastic, refined oil, etc.) The color yellow and red are dispersed throughout the flame body and there is no segregation between red and yellow colors.

This is not unlike the existence of a trigger that onsets life within inorganic bodies. The Picture 6.12 shows a depiction of onset of fire as well as of life.

Consider what happens with life, a living plant and a dead plant have little tangible difference for some time period. The reason the exact time of death cannot be identified is it is an intangible. Similar to what was discussed in terms Yin–Yang duality, both life and death have itself tangible and intangible components within them. When a seed becomes alive, no tangible change occurs in the seed or the surrounding. Similarly, when death occurs in plant, there is no tangible change. It is not until a few cycles have passed that one notices tangible changes. This cycle is characteristic of a living object.

Similarly, extinction or onset of a flame involves an intangible. When a flame is onset, there is no tangible change, for instance, in terms of temperature, ingredient. When a flame is extinguished, the only change that is visible is the disappearance of flame's glow.

While it is true, heat alone can act as spark for a flame, the fact that a spark triggers a flame cannot be explained with conventional science. It is because New Science is grossly deficient of details of factors that are not amenable to linearization (Zatzman et al., 2007b).

Following are some of the typical temperatures for various types of flames and fires.

This confirms that the minimum temperature associated with a flame is 1000 °C. The highest temperature is recorded for the case of oxyhydrogen flame. However, this flame is not natural because no such reaction takes place on earth under natural conditions. Bunsen burner, on the other hand, represents natural gas burning. Natural gas is such that it does not oxidize in any substantial amount if there is no flame. However, if there is a flame, ambient conditions offer the best condition. When the exposure to air is reduced, the completeness of oxidation reaction is affected. Less air yields an incomplete and thus cooler reaction, while a gas stream well mixed with air provides oxygen in an equimolar amount and thus a complete and hotter reaction. The hottest flame emerges with a blue color when air is mixed freely with the fuel. If the mixing is reduced by choking the inlet of air, the flame will be less hot, however, the brightness of the flame will be increased. The yellow flame is called “luminous flame.” In contrast, when the burner is regulated to produce a hot, blue flame it can be nearly invisible against some backgrounds. The hottest part of the flame is the tip of the inner flame, while the coolest is the whole inner flame. Increasing the amount of fuel gas flow through the tube by opening the needle valve will increase the size of the flame. In brief, the Bunsen burner offers a contradictory behavior between heat and light generation, higher light leading to less efficient burning. This is in sharp contrast to the trend observed in natural flame (Figure 6.32)

Bunsen burner produces luminosity by decreasing air supply. In another word, there is a reverse relationship between yield (or efficiency) and luminosity. In the simplest case, the yellow flame is luminous due to small soot particles in the flame which are heated to incandescence. The flame is yellow because of its temperature. To produce enough soot to be luminous, the flame is operated at a lower temperature than its efficient heating flame. The color of simple incandescence is due to black-body radiation. This phenomenon is captured with Planck's law that models black-body radiation as an inverse function of temperature, going from blue to yellow. Luminosity is similarly affected by pressure. These factors are captured in designing artificial lights.

Such behavior is typical of artificial light that employs chemical alteration. Such is typical of a pyrotechnic colorant that triggers chemical reaction to “burn” into a certain color. These colorants are used to create the colors in pyrotechnic compositions like fireworks and colored fires. The color-producing species are usually created from other chemicals during the reaction. Metal salts are commonly used; elemental metals are used rarely (e.g., copper for blue flames).

The color of the flame is dependent on the metal cation, while the anion of the salt has very little direct influence. The anions however influence the flame temperature, both by increasing it (e.g., nitrates, chlorates) and decreasing it (e.g., carbonates, oxalates), indirectly influencing the flame brightness and brilliancy. For temperature-decreasing additives, the limit of colorant may be about 10–20 wt% of the composition. Table 6.21 shows how various colors can be produced with artificial flames.

Picture 6.13 shows fire from wood (top left) is part of the organic cycle whereas smoke from a tungsten bulb (bottom right) is that of mechanical (hence implosive and non-sustainable) cycle. While these extremes are well known, confusion arises as to how to characterize plastic fire (top right) and smoke from a cigarette (bottom left) that have very similar CO₂ emission as in natural wood burning.

The visible particulate matter in such smokes is most commonly composed of carbon (soot). This is the most tangible part. Other particulates may be composed of drops of condensed tar, or solid particles of ash. The presence of metals in the fuel yields particles of metal oxides. Particles of inorganic salts may also be formed, e.g., ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, or sodium chloride. Inorganic salts present on the surface of the soot particles may make them hydrophilic. Many organic compounds, typically the aromatic hydrocarbons, may be also adsorbed on the surface of the solid particles. Metal oxides can be present when metal-containing fuels are burned, e.g., solid rocket fuels containing aluminum. Depleted uranium projectiles after impacting the target ignite, producing particles of uranium oxides. Magnetic particles, spherules of magnetite-like ferrous ferric oxide, are present in coal smoke. New Science does not have any means of characterizing these emissions based on artificiality, thereby failing to distinguish between organic and nonorganic emissions (Islam et al., 2010a; 2012a; Khan and Islam, 2012).

The following table (Table 6.22) shows the relative amount of various elements in the earth crust as well as the lithosphere. It shows oxygen as the most prevalent in the earth crust, followed by silicon, aluminum, iron, and others in lesser quantity. Hydrogen, the component of water, is 10th in the list. The essential component of living organism, viz., carbon is a distant 15th.

In order to determine the overall mass balance of the ecosystem, one should look into the source of carbon as well as hydrogen. It is known that the atmosphere is composed of approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and less than 1% argon. Theoretically, all other elements in the earth crust should also appear in the atmosphere. This composition remains fairly constant throughout the atmosphere. However, as the altitude goes up, the density is decreased, leading to “thinning” of the air. This thinning leads to the formation of various degrees of ozone within the stratosphere. This ozone layer acts as shield against some of the nonvisible emission of the sunlight. The high distribution of visible light, as reported earlier in this chapter, is possible in part due to the presence of this shield. Figure 6.33 shows how such protection is done with a clear and dark lens.

This figure shows that how the presence of an even “transparent” lens can alter the wavelength spectrum significantly.

Above the mesosphere, the composition changes significantly, both in content and form. The overall composition is still dominated by nitrogen and oxygen, gases are highly ionized, and bond between oxygen atoms are broken. Conventional theories cannot explain these phenomena, but it is considered to be essential for earth's sustainability. In the exosphere, the outer layer of Earth's atmosphere, air molecules can easily escape the earth's gravity and float into space. This process is similar to atomic radiation, which can be captured as long as the artificial boundary between mass and energy is removed (Islam et al., 2014).

In this context, the composition of human body is important. Table 6.23 presents the elemental composition of a typical human body (70 kg). This table does not contain some trace elements. Through continuity, all elements of the earth crust should also be present in a human body. Interestingly, carbon is the 2nd most important component of a human body, followed by hydrogen, nitrogen, and calcium, etc.

Obliviously, human needs for various chemicals are met through breathing and consumption of food. The composition of the atmosphere shows that breathing alone would provide very little carbon, which has to be taken from plants. In this regard, the composition of plant is of utmost importance. The exact chemical composition of plants varies from plant to plant, and within different parts of the same plant. Chemical composition also varies within plants from different geographic locations, ages, climate, and soil conditions (Reimann et al., 2001; Shtangeeva, 1994). However, the most abundant chemical in plants as well as other living bodies is cellulose. The basic component of this chemical is sugar or carbohydrate. This also forms the basis for all petroleum products, irrespective of their physical state. Also, plants are known to show variable compositions in terms of Cd, V, Co, Pb, Ba, and Y, while maintain a surprisingly similar levels in all plants in some other elements, e.g., Rb, S, Cu, K, Ca, P, and Mg (Reimann et al., 2001).

Even though no evidence exists in nature that hydrogen combined with oxygen in their elemental form to produce water, it is commonly accepted that elemental balance in oxygen and hydrogen exists independently. This connection comes from the Big Bang theory that assumes that the original mass was hydrogen. This new version of atomism has been challenged by several researchers and remains a subject of ongoing debate (Islam et al., 2014a). In every cycle, however, there are components that cannot be accounted for with conventional scientific analysis. Figure 6.35 shows how oxygen cycle is complete within the echo system. In every step, there is involvement of living organism. That itself is a matter of intangible as “life” cannot be quantified or even qualified and is inherently intangible. The first reaction identified in the following figure is photolysis. This is a term coined to include the role of sunlight in sustaining the terrestrial ecosystem. Photolysis is part of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. The general reaction of photosynthetic photolysis can be given as

The chemical nature of “A” depends on the type of organism. For instance, in purple sulfur bacteria, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is oxidized to sulfur (S). In oxygenic photosynthesis, water (H₂O) serves as a substrate for photolysis resulting in the generation of diatomic oxygen (O₂). The Σ symbol includes information about the pathway, f(t), for the photons. For instance, for sunlight it would be something intangible that is beneficial in the long term and for artificial light, it would be something intangible that is harmful in the long term (Figure 6.34). This is the process that returns oxygen to earth's atmosphere (Figure 6.35). Photolysis of water occurs in the thylakoids of cyanobacteria and the chloroplasts of green algae and plants.

Photosynthesis is the next process that involves the sunlight. Similar to photolysis, photosynthesis also involves living organisms. Photosynthetic organisms are photoautotrophs, which means that they are able to synthesize food directly from carbon dioxide and water using energy from light. However, not all organisms that use light as a source of energy carry out photosynthesis, since photoheterotrophs use organic compounds, rather than carbon dioxide, as a source of carbon. In plants, algae and cyanobacteria, photosynthesis releases oxygen. This is called oxygenic photosynthesis. However, there are some types of bacteria that carry out an oxygenic photosynthesis, which consumes carbon dioxide but does not release oxygen. In that case, they act as an oxygen sink.

Carbon dioxide is converted into “sugars” in a process called carbon fixation. Carbon fixation is an endothermic redox reaction, so photosynthesis needs to supply both a source of energy to drive this process and the electrons needed to convert carbon dioxide into a carbohydrate. This addition of the electrons is a reduction reaction. In general outline and in effect, photosynthesis is the opposite of cellular respiration, in which “glucose” and other compounds are oxidized to produce carbon dioxide and water, and to release exothermic chemical energy to drive the organism's metabolism. In this process, the intangibles are captured by another set of Σ₂. This symbol contains two sets of information, one regarding the source of carbon dioxide and the other regarding the source of light. The general equation for photosynthesis is:

In oxygenic photosynthesis water is the electron donor and, since its hydrolysis releases oxygen, the equation for this process is:

Figure 6.36 shows the cycle involving hydrogen balance. Figure 6.37 shows the overall water balance. Scientifically, water balance is the only natural balance.