What if, actually, in some ways nature isn’t really as good at finding its way as we once thought? An Illinois research project is aiming to make photosynthesis more efficient. To talk about the project and its potential ramifications, we were joined by its director. 

There's a big molecule, a protein, inside the leaves of most plants. It's called Rubisco, which is short for an actual chemical name that's very long and hard to remember.

Agriculture uses 90-percent of the world’s fresh water supply.  And as the demand for food around the world continues to rise, so will the need to find crops that use less water.

Researchers with the University of Illinois’ crop research project, Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency -- or RIPE for short -- invited the media and the public to a field day Thursday. Don Ort is the associate director of the RIPE project and a crop science professor at the U of I. He gave Illinois Public Media’s Brian Moline an overview of the project.