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Strange photosynthesis on strange worlds

Sara Seager, Andras and Zsom and I have published our paper on photosynthesis on planets with hydorgen atmospheres. Exoplanet searches have found anew class of planet - "Super Earths" - not seen in our solar system. Bigger than Earth but smaller then Neptune, these worlds could hold an atmosphere dominated by hydrogen. On such planets, life would have to take methane and turn it into biomass, unlike the Earthly process of photosynthesis that takes carbon dioxide and build plants (which we then eat). Our paper shows that this is possible, actually uses less energyt han terrestrial photosynthesis, can use infra-red light, and astonishingly can take place on planets as far from their star as Saturn is from the Sun. Plants on such worlds would make hydrogen, not oxygen, which would make then hard to detect from afar, but is not imcompatible with the evolution of complex life. Click on this link for the paper, and here for Dirk Schulze-Makuch's blog on the paper