The biological system then
extracts energy(via coupled photon transfer) from this
electron-transport which is then used to phosphorylate
adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to adenosine triphosphate
(ATP), as well as to move ions across membranes[43,56].
Photosynthesis also utilizes similar principles of electron
transfer chains; and of course, the process of movement
of an electron, a subatomic particle, which clearly
demonstrates quantum behaviour is likely to be able to
utilize quantum principles — provided coherence can be
maintained within the cell. Recently, it has been found
that electromagnetic fields generated by mitochondria are
capable of generating ‘water order’ which is able to protect
against decoherence; this could be viewed as evidence
of how life has evolved to be able to utilize quantum
principles under conditions that seem unlikely based
on our current understanding[117].
http://journals.hh-publisher.com/index.php/pddbs/article/view/349/211
This tenet of quantum
biology appears to be gaining support from a variety of
sources including from emerging mathematical models
that suggest quantum coherence can be maintained for
significant periods of time; that coherence can in fact be
maintained for orders of magnitude longer in complex
biological systems than in simple quantum systems at
room temperature[118].
quantum effects such as polarization play
an important role in accurately describing the electric
field inside proteins[119]. This suggests that quantum
mechanics is key in understanding enzymes, and thus is
likely to have a key role in respiration in cells as well as
other processes essential to homeostasis.
For example, a molecule that does not actually
contain sulphur but possesses a vibrational spectrum at
the same frequency as a sulphur-hydrogen stretch mode
was perceived to smell of sulphur[36].
Of course, a similar argument would apply
to other ions such as potassium which has a De-Broglie
wavelength of 0.05 nm and it has been calculated that it
can perform quantum tunnelling and diffraction through
an ion canal 0.25 nm wide. This would then infer that
all ions are linked; and this argument can be expanded
further to include neurotransmitters whereby a single
neurotransmitter molecule, has effects not only on the
receptor it is physically bound to, but in fact also affects
the other nearby receptors.
These chlorophyll molecules are able to transiently store
the energy captured by the antenna as electronic excited
states in order to channel it to the reaction center, which
can be thought as a solar cell. The ability of the FMO
complex to ‘wire’this energy between the light harvesting
antenna and the reaction center has been studied in green
sulphur bacteria which are photosynthetic organisms
where it has been found that the energy absorbed is passed
over the seven bacteriochlorophyll molecules in each
FMO complex prior to reaching the reaction center[155].
Recently, researchers have suggested that this energy
transfer relay is facilitated by quantum mechanics[40,47,107].
This
would enable the energy to simultaneously travel along
all possible pathways (see Figure 3) — in much the same
way a quantum computer has the ability to access all
the data in a particular database at the same time. The
implication here is that the wavefunction of the exciton
is in a state of coherent superposition over the molecules,
which facilitates optimization of the time taken for the
absorbed light energy to travel towards the reaction
centre. Based on this theory, once the shortest, most direct
road is identified, the system “snaps out of superposition”
and utilizes the route identified, making it possible for the
energy to take the most efficient path every time[2,156].
Engel and his team were the first to show pigment protein
from photosynthetic organisms was able to demonstrate
long lasting coherence at physiological temperatures[12].
These unpaired electrons each
possess an intrinsic angular momentum, or spin, the
orientation of which can be altered by a magnetic field —
these spin correlated states are in either singlet or triplet
configuration[36]. All matter does in effect have matter
waves (shown by De Broglie), and the wave function for
these waves possesses ‘phase’, meaning that quantum
particles essentially behave as a rotating cloud, and can
be influenced by magnetic fields; then these particles have
‘spin’[164]. As the two components of the radical pair move
further apart, each one is primarily influenced by varying
magnetic fields — one by the magnetism of the nearby
atomic nucleus, and the other which is further from the
nucleus, is influenced by the Earth’s magnetic field[7]. The
variation in the field shifts between the components of the
radical pair shifts the radical pair between two quantum
states each of which has a different chemical reactivity;
which then provides a possible mechanism by which the
radical-pair functions as a biological compass[165].
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