The Beauty of Fall, and the Science Behind It

As I set out for a run on Monday, October 20, I noticed that the leaves of many trees had changed from their usual green color to beautiful shades of yellow and orange. “I promise they were green on Sunday” I said to myself. So how the heck did that happen? Well there's a science behind it and it just doesn't happen by chance.See the different colors, yellows and oranges of the leaves don't happen by mistake, there's a chemical process they undergo. Now let's be real, not everyone is a fan of biology and science so I'll cut to the chase.

Inside every leaf is chlorophyll, a pigment that makes photosynthesis possible. Photosynthesis is the process where plants make their own food using sunlight and chlorophyll is what gives leaves their green color.Along with the green pigment are the yellow to orange pigments but these are masked by the green pigment during the year. 

During the summer and spring, when there’s plenty of sunlight, plants make and store their food in their leaves. But in the fall, where the days get cooler and shorter, there's a reduced amount of photosynthesis. The chlorophyll breaks down and the green color disappears while the other colors become visible and get their time to shine revealing their different colors.

  So the next time you look at the trees, and see the beautiful fall colors, you would know they don't happen by magic, its nature at work transforming before our very eyes.