This document summarizes the key discoveries and experiments that led to the modern understanding of photosynthesis. It describes how van Helmont, Priestly, and Ingenhousz performed early experiments in the 17th-18th centuries that showed plants absorb materials from water and soil and release oxygen when exposed to sunlight. Later scientists like Julius Mayer proposed that plants convert sunlight into chemical energy. The document then provides details on the structures and processes involved in photosynthesis, including chloroplasts, chlorophyll, thylakoids, and the two main stages - the light-dependent reactions that convert solar energy to chemical energy and the light-independent Calvin cycle that uses this energy to produce sugars.