Quantum Physics and the Messy World of Living Things

The Quantum theory of Evolution

Deep inside the cells of any plant or animal, particles are found to move through walls like ghosts. During photosynthesis which is the process of converting photon energy to bio-energy, why and how do plants collect glimmering waves that can be everywhere at the same time? How are our senses tuning into an unusual form of quantum vibration? In the strange world of quantum biology, life is a game of chance being played with the rules of quantum physics. And we are here to explore.

^{Image - Pixabay(CC0)}

In this article, we will look at how quantum mechanics is important, aiding us with the ability to explore many of the processes in life, and potentially the rise of life itself. Does quantum physics play any role in evolution? Could there be a quantum theory of evolution?

Weird Birds

The Quantum Robin

Every December some birds called Barnacle goose would arrive at the same river in Scotland. These birds at this time have reached their destination after flying in a very long 2000 mile journey. For a very long time, the processes by which birds used to calibrate around the world so accurately puzzled many biologists. A few years ago, the study of one particular species of birds had led to a scientific revolution. Professor Jim Al-Khalili of Surrey University was one of many physicists who found out that a certain species of birds use QUARKS from quantum mechanics to aid its navigation around the world. The birds in question are called the quantum robin.

Every year this bird would migrate from northern Europe far to the tips of Spain and then return gloriously. Quantum mechanics describe the very different world of subatomic particles and using it to study the birds and how it takes advantage of the earth's magnetic field. The disturbing question is how? The earth's magnetic field is very weak, in fact, we suspected that it was too weak for any living thing to detect. Investigating further, they found out that the bird's magnetic compass is its eyes, through a special interaction with its brain. You can perform an experiment with yourself, we primarily use our eyes for vision, this is successful because we have a unique light detection mechanism. If you go to a mirror and point a torch into one of your eyes you will notice that it immediately runs through a process that closes the pupil, this is just a way for the eyes to protect itself from excess blinding light, it is responding to particles of light called photons. These photons provide enough energy for a chemical reaction that controls the eye muscles. In the bird's case, the photon in its eye provides energy for a special type of navigation, inside her cells, deep down to its subatomic particles.

To understand how this works picture a high peak mountain, to get a reaction the photons provide energy that pushes molecules to the peak of the mountain. At this stage, the molecule becomes so sensitive, it is balanced at the peak of its energy level between two valleys and any slight touch will cause it to fall over from the side. If it falls one way it produces a chain of chemical reactions, if it falls the other way it then produces a different set of reactions; here a slight change of the earth's magnetic field is all that's needed to tip the molecule over, but how this happens is beyond the seat of common sense and intuition.

The final piece of this puzzle rests in the weird phenomenon…

Quantum Entanglement

It is about particles that seem to communicate amongst themselves faster than the speed of light. Back when Einstein was alive he published a paper arguing that this phenomenon was impossible, but he was wrong, we know that now because experiments have shown that some particles really are entangled. When a photon enters the bird's eye, it creates immediately an "entangled pair of electrons". These electrons have two possible states, for the sake of simplicity I will call the two states "RED" and "GREEN", the things is, until we look at the electron it is neither one or the other i.e. it is neither red or green but both at the same time. Right now if we look at one of the electrons we have a 50/50 per cent chance of seeing green or red. Suppose we have looked and discovered the electrons to be red, if we decide to look at the second electron you would think that we still have a 50/50 per cent chance of finding either red or green in it, but you'd be wrong! The particles are entangled and because of this, even if we have not looked at the second electron we know with a 100 per cent clarity that we will also see red when we look at the second electron - it's no longer a game of chance.

It looks like the first electron is telling the second one exactly what to do, no wonder Einstein called it spooky. The electrons somehow know that they must have the same color, no matter how far apart they are from each other. Another cool thing is that the electrons don't exactly have to be the same colour, they can be entangled in a different way so that when we look at one of them to be red, the other has to be green. This phenomenon is the secret to the powers of the Quantum robin, how? How does the direction of the earth's magnetic field influence the outcome of the electrons? When the bird is near the equator the particles may be RED, RED, but near the pole, the outcome becomes RED, GREEN. This single factor is what tips the balance of chemical reactions in the brain of the bird. Tiny changes in the earth's magnetic field change the way in which the electrons in the bird's eyes are entangled. This discovery is the first quantum mechanical phenomenon completely detailed in the world of biology.

This gave rise to the science of quantum biology, intellectuals in this field have discovered that this phenomenon doesn't just work with birds, it works with every single one of us. Our latest experiments have shown that we are doing more or less the same things right now with our noses.

The Quantum Nose

Our sense of smell is amazingly different from our other senses of sight, feelings, and hearing. Smells are said to trigger powerful emotions and memories, the other senses like sight and hearing work by allowing us to detect waves of light and sound. But our sense of smell involves us detecting particles, small chemical molecules. For decades biologists thought they knew exactly how our nose perceived different molecules, but physicists always change everything.

It smells like Quantum Mechanics…

Anytime our noses come across a chemical, they fire a nerve signal to our brains and different chemicals or molecules will create different sensations. The widely understood explanation of this rests on how the molecules of the chemicals are shaped and organized. In the 1950s scientists attempted to understand what happens when we smell and discovered that our noses have multiple distinct shapes of receptors and any molecule that fits ‘just right’ in any one receptor will make that receptor fire a unique sensation to the brain. The problem with this way of looking at smells is that: Molecules with different structures can still trigger the same sensations, therefore, there has to be something more happening and biologists have been left clueless about it for decades.

In her research, Dr Jennifer Brookes at the University College of London shows that our noses do not smell quantum molecules from chemicals, they listen to them. You see, in a chemical bond of two or more atoms, for example, carbon dioxide. A carbon atom with 2 oxygen atoms is held together due to their electronegativity or how much electrons they need to become electrically neutral. These bonds are not just holding the atoms together, they are also moving, vibrating like a string. The new quantum theory of smell is all about the vibration of chemical bonds! These molecules are playing music in our noses.

To understand this better, think of the receptor molecules in your nose as a guitar, for a guitar to make any sounds we have to vibrate its strings, when a scent molecule enters our nose we can think of the bonds between its atoms as the strings of the guitar, when the receptor molecules which contain quantum particles (electrons) leap around the bonds they make the bonds to vibrate at a certain frequency, just the way it is when your fingers pluck a guitar string. Our sense of smell could be much more like our sense of hearing.

A particular small molecule, for example, that of cake will vibrate at a certain frequency, and another molecule like mint, for example, will also vibrate at a much different frequency, this way our brains can tell the difference between both molecules. This explains why different things can have the same smell to us but are structurally different in its quantum level, things that vibrate with the same frequency give the same stimulation to the brain.

The science of the quantum world reaches into the cell walls of every living thing in the planet, the next topic may answer the questions to the miracle of metamorphosis. I present to you… The Quantum Frog in my next article: Quantum physics and the messy world of living things 2.

References

Phys.org - Quantum Criticality life Proteins

Science News for Students -quantum world mind bogglingly weird

Discover Magazine - Is Quantum Mechanics Controlling your Thoughts

NCBI - Quantum Physics Meets Biology