Chlorophyll Sees Red Among the first facts students learn about the natural world is that plants owe their green color to the pigment chlorophyll. There have actually been a handful of slightly different chlorophyll variants uncovered over the years, and Chen et al. (p. 1318 , published online 19 August) have found another in bacteria from Shark Bay, Australia. The chlorophyll variant displayed a red-shifted absorption spectrum, which extended into the near-infrared region due to the insertion of a formyl group on the molecule's periphery. The precise cellular function of the pigment awaits further study.