Science at the Edge
Friday March 29, 2019
11:30 1400 BPS
Refreshments at 11:00
Quantum Biology: Life on the Edge
Johnjoe McFadden
University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK
Quantum mechanics is the weirdest of sciences that allows particles to inhabit multiple locations in space and time at once, travel through classically-impenetrable
barriers and possess spooky connections across vast regions of space. Yet the science is usually considered to be limited to the tiniest components of matter, such as protons or atoms. As systems get bigger, classical behaviours in which particles tend to
be in one place or another, cannot penetrate impenetrable barriers and are not spookily connected, tends to dominate. However, several; decades ago, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger, proposed in his book, ‘What is Life?’ published
in 1944 that “a gene – or perhaps the whole chromosome fibre … [is] an aperiodic crystal [in which] every atom, and every group of atoms, plays an individual role … which has to be a masterpiece of highly differentiated order, safeguarded by the conjuring
rod of quantum theory.’ He went on to claim that life was fundamentally quantum mechanical.
In this talk I will examine Schrödinger’s claim from the perspective of modern quantum biology and molecular biology. I will discuss evidence for the quantum tunnelling,
quantum coherence and even quantum entanglement a wide range of biological phenomena such as avian navigation, enzyme action, photosynthesis, the sense of smell and mutation. I will also discuss advances in relation to that most fundamental question of biology:
what is life? I will propose that what makes life unique is that it operates at the border between the quantum and classical realm.
Lerena R. Heintzelman
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Michigan State University
567 Wilson Rd. Room 3261
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-884-5513