PLato said,"Look to the perfection of the heavens for truth," while Aristotle said "look around you at what is, if you would know the truth" To Remember: Eskesthai
Showing posts with label Quantum Biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quantum Biology. Show all posts
It is a hasty entry this morning so by all means this information will not be complete. Familiarity with using spectrographic processes helps to align the thinking needed in the overview of dealing with the processes of organic chemistry. By no means do I have a complete view here, but if you think possibly in a theoretical way can we marry Organic Chemistry to what we call Theoretical Organic Chemistry?
You are not just looking at the stars anymore but have realigned your thinking to organic processes here on Earth.
Spectra are complex because each spectrum holds a wide variety of information. For instance, there are many different mechanisms by which an object, like a star, can produce light - or using the technical term for light, electromagnetic radiation. Each of these mechanisms has a characteristic spectrum.
Let's look at a spectrum and examine each part of it.Introduction to Spectroscopy
We've known for some time that certain animals can navigate the Earth using it's magnetic fields, but the methods by which they do this have remained largely unknown.
However, an emerging field known as quantum biology is shedding light on this area and suggests that nature maybe taking advantage of quantum mechanics to develop its biological compass systems.
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili looks at one bird in particular, the European Robin, and how this species of migratory bird may be relying on the strange rules of quantum entanglement to find its way south each year.
Watch Jim's Friday Evening Discourse on the subject of Quantum Biology to find out more about the weird intersection between quantum mechanics and biology:http://bit.ly/X826sE
The frequency of vibration of an object is, among other
things, a function of mass: A heavy guitar string vibrates more slowly
than a light one and produces a lower tone. These tiny cantilevers
vibrate at radio frequencies, in the 1 to 15 megahertz range, and
because they are so small to begin with, adding just a tiny bit more
mass will make a measurable change in frequency.
For
cell detection, the researchers coated their cantilevers with
antibodies that bind to E. coli bacteria, then bathed the devices in a
solution containing the cells. Some of the cells were bound to the
surface, and the additional mass changed the frequency of vibration. In
one case just one cell happened to bond to a cantilever, and it was
possible to detect the mass of the single cell. ‘Nano’ Becomes ‘Atto’ and Will Soon Be ‘Zepto’ for Cornell - New Technology
As soon as you use the word "quantum" there is a easy assessment for a scientist who deals with reduction-ism to have it sorted out as to what levels of perception are being forced upon a definition and understanding. A measurable quantity of something? For us lay people, it is never that easy.
a.
The smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist
independently, especially a discrete quantity of electromagnetic
radiation.
b. This amount of energy regarded as a unit.
adj.
Relating to or based upon quantum mechanics.
[Latin, from neuter of quantus, how great; see quantity.]
So suffice is it to say that by demonstrating this scalable reference to the values and options in recognition of the Powers of Ten, we realize the depth with which we need participation. That through use of manufacture, as for any of us to say such a thing that which is not observable normally, can we say then exists for us? We have all taken it for granted, even a scientist perhaps to realize how one can divvy up their day as to say at times our perception was much deeper in to the reality then previously confirmed?
Have we gotten so far into our assumptions of the world that we would not further entertain the idea that consciousness emerges from something. Consciousness that is so subtle that we have not really to this date been able to reproduce what consciousness actually looks like. Categorized consciousness at this wanted measurable level of perception that is needed.
Can we say we have always measured around it, and can shows signs of something going on in terms of biological exchange, but have as yet not been able to assess this function as nothing more then some abstract creature of design that we lack for distinct measurable quantities?
Many biological processes involve the conversion of energy into forms
that are usable for chemical transformations and are quantum mechanical
in nature. Such processes involve chemical reactions, light absorption, formation of excited electronic states, transfer of excitation energy, and the transfer of electrons and protons (hydrogen ions) in chemical processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration.[1] Quantum biology uses computation to model biological interactions in light of quantum mechanical effects.[2]
Some examples of the biological phenomena that have been studied in terms of quantum processes are the absorbance of frequency-specific radiation (i.e., photosynthesis[3] and vision[4]); the conversion of chemical energy into motion;[5]magnetoreception in animals,[6][7] DNA mutation [8] and brownian motors in many cellular processes.[9]
Recent studies have identified quantum coherence and entanglement between the excited states of different pigments in the light-harvesting stage of photosynthesis.[10][11]
Although this stage of photosynthesis is highly efficient, it remains
unclear exactly how or if these quantum effects are relevant
biologically.[12]
^Garab, G. (1999). Photosynthesis: Mechanisms and Effects: Proceedings of the XIth International Congress on Photosynthesis. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN978-0-7923-5547-2.
^Levine, Raphael D. (2005). Molecular Reaction Dynamics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 16–18. ISBN978-0-521-84276-1.
^Binhi, Vladimir N. (2002). Magnetobiology: Underlying Physical Problems. Academic Press. pp. 14–16. ISBN978-0-12-100071-4.
^Erik M. Gauger, Elisabeth Rieper, John J. L. Morton, Simon C. Benjamin, Vlatko Vedral: Sustained quantum coherence and entanglement in the avian compass, Physics Review Letters, vol. 106, no. 4, 040503 (2011) (abstract, preprint)
^Lowdin,
P.O. (1965) Quantum genetics and the aperiodic solid. Some aspects on
the Biological problems of heredity, mutations, aging and tumours in
view of the quantum theory of the DNA molecule. Advances in Quantum
Chemistry. Volume 2. pp213-360. Acedemic Press
^Harald
Krug; Harald Brune, Gunter Schmid, Ulrich Simon, Viola Vogel, Daniel
Wyrwa, Holger Ernst, Armin Grunwald, Werner Grunwald, Heinrich Hofmann
(2006). Nanotechnology: Assessment and Perspectives. Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K. pp. 197–240. ISBN978-3-540-32819-3.
^Sarovar,
Mohan; Ishizaki, Akihito; Fleming, Graham R.; Whaley, K. Birgitta
(2010). "Quantum entanglement in photosynthetic light-harvesting
complexes". Nature Physics6 (6): 462–467. arXiv:0905.3787. Bibcode2010NatPh...6..462S. doi:10.1038/nphys1652.
^Scholes GS (2010). "Quantum-Coherent Electronic Energy Transfer: Did Nature Think of It First?". Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters1: 2–8. doi:10.1021/jz900062f.
The Physical Aspect of the Living
Cell.
Based on lectures delivered under the auspices of
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at
Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943.
What Is Life?is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin.
The lectures attracted an audience of about 400, who were warned "that
the subject-matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not
be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon,
mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized."[1]
Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the
events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of
a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?"[1]
In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic
crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of
covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule. Although the existence of DNA
had been known since 1869, its role in reproduction and its helical
shape were still unknown at the time of Schrödinger's lecture. In
retrospect, Schrödinger's aperiodic crystal can be viewed as a
well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been
looking for during their search for genetic material. Both James D. Watson,[2] and independently, Francis Crick,
co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, credited Schrödinger's book
with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and each respectively acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches.[3]
The book is based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Institute at Trinity College, Dublin,
in February 1943 and published in 1944. At that time DNA was not yet
accepted as the carrier of hereditary information, which only was the
case after the Hershey–Chase experiment of 1952. One of the most successful branches of physics at this time was statistical physics, and quantum mechanics,
a theory which is also very statistical in its nature. Schrödinger
himself is one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics. Max Delbrück's thinking about the physical basis of life was an important influence on Schrödinger.[4] Geneticist and 1946 Nobel-prize winner H.J. Muller had in his 1922 article "Variation due to Change in the Individual Gene"[5] already laid out all the basic properties of the heredity molecule that Schrödinger derives from first principles in What is Life?, properties which Muller refined in his 1929 article "The Gene As The Basis of Life"[6] and further clarified during the 1930s, long before the publication of What is Life?[7][verification needed]
But the role of the macromolecule DNA as the genetic material was not
yet suspected in 1929, rather, some form of protein was expected to be
the genetic material at that time.
Content
In chapter I, Schrödinger explains that most physical laws on a large
scale are due to chaos on a small scale. He calls this principle
"order-from-disorder." As an example he mentions diffusion,
which can be modeled as a highly ordered process, but which is caused
by random movement of atoms or molecules. If the number of atoms is
reduced, the behaviour of a system becomes more and more random. He
states that life greatly depends on order and that a naive physicist may
assume that the master code of a living organism has to consist of a
large number of atoms.
In chapter II and III, he summarizes what was known at this time
about the hereditary mechanism. Most importantly, he elaborates the
important role mutations play in evolution.
He concludes that the carrier of hereditary information has to be both
small in size and permanent in time, contradicting the naive physicist's
expectation. This contradiction cannot be resolved by classical physics.
In chapter IV, Schrödinger presents molecules,
which are indeed stable even if they consist of only a few atoms, as
the solution. Even though molecules were known before, their stability
could not be explained by classical physics, but is due to the discrete
nature of quantum mechanics. Furthermore mutations are directly linked to quantum leaps.
He continues to explain, in chapter V, that true solids, which are also permanent, are crystals.
The stability of molecules and crystals is due to the same principles
and a molecule might be called "the germ of a solid." On the other hand
an amorphous solid, without crystalline structure, should be regarded as a liquid with a very high viscosity.
Schrödinger believes the heredity material to be a molecule, which
unlike a crystal does not repeat itself. He calls this an aperiodic
crystal. The aperiodic nature allows to encode an almost infinite number
of possibilities with a small number of atoms. He finally compares this
picture with the known facts and finds it in accordance with them.
In chapter VI Schrödinger states:
...living matter, while not eluding the "laws of physics" as
established up to date, is likely to involve "other laws of physics"
hitherto unknown, which however, once they have been revealed, will form
just as integral a part of science as the former.
He knows that this statement is open to misconception and tries to
clarify it. The main principle involved with "order-from-disorder" is
the second law of thermodynamics, according to which entropy only increases in a closed system (such as the universe). Schrödinger explains that living matter evades the decay to thermodynamical equilibrium by homeostatically maintaining negative entropy (today this quantity is called information[8]) in an open system.
In chapter VII, he maintains that "order-from-order" is not
absolutely new to physics; in fact, it is even simpler and more
plausible. But nature follows "order-from-disorder", with some
exceptions as the movement of the celestial bodies
and the behaviour of mechanical devices such as clocks. But even those
are influenced by thermal and frictional forces. The degree to which a
system functions mechanically or statistically depends on the
temperature. If heated, a clock ceases to function, because it melts.
Conversely, if the temperature approaches absolute zero,
any system behaves more and more mechanically. Some systems approach
this mechanical behaviour rather fast with room temperature already
being practically equivalent to absolute zero.
Schrödinger concludes this chapter and the book with philosophical speculations on determinism, free will, and the mystery of human consciousness. He believes he must reconcile two premises: (1) the body fully obeys the laws of quantum mechanics, where quantum indeterminacy
plays no important role except to increase randomness at the quantum
scale; and (2) there is "incontrovertible direct experience" that we
freely direct our bodies, can predict outcomes, and take responsibility
for our choice of action. Schrödinger rejects the idea that the source
of consciousness should perish with the body because he finds the idea
"distasteful". He also rejects the idea that there are multiple immortal
souls that can exist without the body because he believes that
consciousness is nevertheless highly dependent on the body. Schrödinger
writes that, to reconcile the two premises,
The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate
experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is
unknown; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a
plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing...
Any intuitions that consciousness is plural, he says, are illusions. Schrödinger is sympathetic to the Hindu concept of Brahman, by which each individual's consciousness is only a manifestation of a unitary consciousness pervading the universe
- which corresponds to the Hindu concept of God. Schrödinger concludes
that "...'I' -am the person, if any, who controls the 'motion of the
atoms' according to the Laws of Nature. However, he also qualifies the
conclusion as "necessarily subjective" in its "philosophical
implications." In the final paragraph, he points out that what is meant
by "I" is not the collection of experienced events but "namely the
canvas upon which they are collected." If a hypnotist succeeds in
blotting out all earlier reminiscences, he writes, there would be no
loss of personal existence - "Nor will there ever be."[9]
Schrödinger's "paradox"
In a world governed by the second law of thermodynamics,
all isolated systems are expected to approach a state of maximum
disorder. Since life approaches and maintains a highly ordered state -
some argue that this seems to violate the aforementioned Second Law
implicating a paradox. However, since life is not an isolated system,
there is no paradox. The increase of order inside an organism is more
than paid for by an increase in disorder outside this organism. By this
mechanism, the Second Law is obeyed, and life maintains a highly ordered
state, which it sustains by causing a net increase in disorder in the
Universe. In order to increase the complexity on Earth - as life does -
you need energy. Most of the energy for life here on Earth is provided
by the Sun.
^ abMargulis, Lynn. & Sagan, Dorion. (1995). What Is Life? (pg. 1). Berkeley: University of California Press.
^Watson, James D. (2007), Avoid Boring People: (Lessons from a life in science), New York: Knopf, p. 353, ISBN978-0-375-41284-4. Page 28 details how Watson came to appreciate the significance of the gene.
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