Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Geographer Mathias Disney on the Sun's spectrum, albedo and why plants and animals are sensitive to a very specific part of the overall spectrum.

Read the full text on our website: serious-science.org/radiation-and-land-surface-10381

'If we consider radiation coming from the Sun to be distributed from about 0.2-0.3 microns (millionths of a metre) to many centimetre wavelengths, that spans orders of magnitude, many orders of magnitude. Our eyes are sensitive to a tiny tiny part of that, from about 0.4 to about 0.7 microns, so it's a tiny fraction of this overall spectrum.'

Mathias Disney, Professor of Geography, University College London

Photosynthesis: serious-science.org/photosynthesis-9484
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