Fake leaves could make any home a power station

Scientists are working on making artificial leaves that can produce fuels directly from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, just as real leaves do. The new leaves could help people heat their homes and drive their cars.

"If nature can do it, so can we," said Gary Brudvig, a Yale University chemistry professor who studies photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert and store energy from the sun. "We want to use the principles from nature to design an artificial leaf," he said, adding that research groups around the world are working on the idea.

The artificial leaves will probably be thin sheets of plastic embedded with light-absorbing materials, or sheets of bubble-wrap-like material spread out over a field that take in sunlight and water vapor and emit, for example, hydrogen or methanol.