Quantum biology
Oh wow. Photosynthesis depends on quantum effects for its amazing efficiency:
The quantum wizardry appears to occur in each of a photosynthetic cell’s millions of antenna proteins. These route energy from electrons spinning in photon-sensitive molecules to nearby reaction-center proteins, which convert it to cell-driving charges.
Almost no energy is lost in between. That’s because it exists in multiple places at once, and always finds the shortest path.
Two things:
- The lead researcher “predicts the emergence of an entire field of quantum biology.” YES.
- The observations in this work were made with femtosecond lasers. Back in college, I worked in a femtosecond laser lab for a semester. These things are so insanely high-tech, and really one of the absolutely essential tools in modern chemistry. Think of a femtosecond laser as a camera with the fastest shutter speed ever. Events that would otherwise be bright smears are captured frame-by-frame, a quadrillionth of a second (!) at a time.
I find myself gazing at the vines on the cement wall outside the cafe here—now blowing in the wind and rain—with newfound awe. Quantum biology!
Hmm. On one hand I feel like all chemistry is dependent on quantum mechanics and so quantum biology is really not _that_ crazy an idea, but on the other hand: ooh, femtosecond laser spectroscopy of an intact room temperature photosynthetic cell….that’s pretty great.
Smell (olfaction) can also be considered quantum biology. Look for Prof. Luca Turin’s research for this. An interesting article about it: http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/the-quantum-mechanics-of-smell/