Content
- explaining some curious phenomena
- photosynthetic light harvesting
- the magnetoreception faculty of some birds
- Electron tunneling in smelling
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quantum entanglement in the brain’smicrotubule proteins – key ingredient in human consciousness.
- The leading experts
- A few good sources
- A future study of Quantum Biology
- Quantum Romance
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
Biologists can explain some curious phenomena only with quantum mechanics.
These are:
- 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 )
- 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
- 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.
- 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)
- Our noses “listen” to the smell molecules vibrating ligaments
- Different odors are giving by different odors. cyanuric molecules vibrate like almond molecules so these have the same smell. (Source: Jim Al-Khalili)
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quantum entanglement in the brain’smicrotubule proteins as a key ingredient in human consciousness.
“orchestrated objective reduction theory (Orch OR)”
- 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
- Jim Al-Khalili
made a documentary about quantum pysics in BBS. Published in https://www.raiplay.it/video/2017/12/I-segreti-della-fisica-quantistica-c194aab6-7d52-4139-8edc-47380e3efedc.html - Philip Ball
- Speakers at the World Science Festival:
- Set Loyd
- Thorsten Ritz
- Paul Davies
A few good sources if you want to know more are:
- New Scientist article “Are we ready for quantum biology?”
- Quantum Effects in Biology
- Youtube videos
The problem in Quantum Biology
It is very difficult to prove this Quantum Biology hypothesis as it has to do with living things, cells that are “wet, warm and messy” (Philip Ball), cells with molecules like the cryptophore receptor, molecules that can not yet undergo laboratory tests.
A future study of Quantum Biology
I asked in the beginning of this post “may quantum mechanics have conditioned the prevailing abiogenesis “land-based volcanic origin theory “ ?
Schrödinger formulated1944 in his book “What is life?” the hypothesis that “a mutation in a molecular structure of a gene presumably was governed by the laws of Quantum mechanics” (Source: Philip Ball in “Quantum Biology: An Introduction” min 6:25 )
Schrödinger was right about many things, maybe also about this hypothesis? It is up to the Quantum Biologists to find the answer to this. The nuclei tunneling hypothesis may be an important path to follow.
Another issue is romance and sexual attraction. As a romance is related to the smell of pheromones and smell is enhanced by quantum mechanics an interesting conclusion is that romance is made easier with electron tunneling.