Physics, Science, Thought

Quantum Biology – updated

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I have written about abiogenesis in  http://www.kinberg.net/wordpress/stellan/?s=earch-luca-makes-progresses-2

Now I move on from abiogenesis to Quantum Biology.

Reading about this new Scientific area still in its infancy, I will describe the main Quantum Biology researches shortly in this post,  I am now asking myself how quantum mechanics may have helped the processes in the prevailing abiogenesis “land-based volcanic origin theory “

Biological science is now making great progress thanks to the knowledge of quantum mechanics, especially about the entanglement mystery I wrote about in http://www.kinberg.net/wordpress/stellan/2018/02/19/the-quantum-god/#quantumenigma_explained

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Biologists can explain some curious phenomena only with quantum mechanics.

These are:

  1. Quantum coherence assists photosynthetic light-harvesting. Excitons in plants move as coherent waves of a quantum superposition of energy states. Doing so the exciton explores several routes at the same time.

    “quantum computation” in photosynthesis (finding the fastest way to the photosynthetic reaction center)  makes photosynthesis more efficient and energy effective.
    (Source: Philip Ball min 48 )
  2. the magnetoreception faculty of some birds
     to be able to see/ feel the earth magnetic field with the  cryptochrome blue light receptor
    Professor Henrik Mouritsen at the University of Oldenberg has made a research on this phenomenon.
    I one eye is darkened the capability disappears. The only way to explain this is with quantum physics.
    A new PBS Spacetime youtube video (see below) talks about this. PBS shares Klaus Schulten’s explanation:
    “Klaus Schulten and colleagues proposed the mechanism that has remained mostly unchanged to this day. It goes like this:
    birds have some protein in their eyes. When light hits the protein, it knocks an electron off an attached molecule that goes onto an adjacent molecule.
    The two molecules now share a pair of entangled electrons— they become a radical pair for a short period of time. Then they quickly react to produce some chemical byproducts. But there’s the key – those byproducts are sensitive to the spin state of the valence electrons at the time of the reaction. 

    So during the short lifespan of the radical pair, its valence spin state can be modified if the bird changes the orientation of its head relative to the Earth’s magnetic field. That leads to a changing yield of different possible byproducts across the bird’s eyes.
    That could lead to a true visual sense of magnetic field orientation.”
    Learn more in the video at youtu.be/0A1ouV7iD8o

  3. Electron tunneling in smelling.
    the olfactory function enhanced by the capability to sense the way molecules vibrate and bond and structure
    Heavier deuterium loaded molecules vibrate slower and the olfactory system can feel that.
  4. Quantum tunneling makes biochemical proton transfers faster and easier. E.g. Hydrogen transfer enzymes like Lactate dehydrogenase save energy by quantum tunneling of hydrogen protons (Philip Bill 18:36)
  5. Our noses “listen” to the smell molecules vibrating ligaments
  6. Different odors are giving by different odors. cyanuric molecules vibrate like almond molecules so these have the same smell. (Source: Jim Al-Khalili)
  7.  quantum entanglement in the brain’s
    microtubule proteins as a key ingredient in human consciousness.
    “orchestrated objective reduction theory (Orch OR)”
  8. This is more about nanotechnology. The lizard gecko can climb walls thanks to millions of setae, tiny projections that bind with surfaces at a molecular level as a result of van der Waals forces. Mimicking the adhesive qualities of geckos’ feet the geckotape has been developed, called Setex material.

    (Source: newatlas.com )

One of Jims youtube is this one

The leading experts in Quantum Biology are now

A few good sources if you want to know more are: