Is Quantum Mechanics Used By Our Brain And Other Biological Systems?

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

_http://discovermagazine.com/2009/feb/13-is-quantum-mechanics-controlling-your-thoughts/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

Quantum mechanics holds that any given particle has a chance of being in a whole range of locations and, in a sense, occupies all those places at once. Physicists describe quantum reality in an equation they call the wave function, which reflects all the potential ways a system can evolve. Until a scientist measures the system, a particle exists in its multitude of locations. But at the time of measurement, the particle has to “choose” just a single spot. At that point, quantum physicists say, probability narrows to a single outcome and the wave function “collapses,” sending ripples of certainty through space-time. Imposing certainty on one particle could alter the characteristics of any others it has been connected with, even if those particles are now light-years away. (This process of influence at a distance is what physicists call entanglement.) As in a game of dominoes, alteration of one particle affects the next one, and so on.
[...]
From tunneling to entanglement, the special properties of the quantum realm allow events to unfold at speeds and efficiencies that would be unachievable with classical physics alone. Could quantum mechanisms be driving some of the most elegant and inexplicable processes of life? For years experts doubted it: Quantum phenomena typically reveal themselves only in lab settings, in vacuum chambers chilled to near absolute zero. Biological systems are warm and wet. Most researchers thought the thermal noise of life would drown out any quantum weirdness that might rear its head.

Yet new experiments keep finding quan­­tum processes at play in biological systems, says Christopher Altman, a researcher at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience in the Netherlands. With the advent of powerful new tools like femtosecond (10-15 second) lasers and nanoscale-precision positioning, life’s quantum dance is finally coming into view.

One of the most significant quantum observations in the life sciences comes from Fleming and his collaborators. Their study of photosynthesis in green sulfur bacteria, published in 2007 in Nature [subscription required], tracked the detailed chemical steps that allow plants to harness sunlight and use it to convert simple raw materials into the oxygen we breathe and the carbohydrates we eat. Specifically, the team examined the protein scaffold connecting the bacteria’s external solar collectors, called the chlorosome, to reaction centers deep inside the cells. Unlike electric power lines, which lose as much as 20 percent of energy in transmission, these bacteria transmit energy at a staggering efficiency rate of 95 percent or better.

The secret, Fleming and his colleagues found, is quantum physics.

To unearth the bacteria’s inner workings, the researchers zapped the connective proteins with multiple ultrafast laser pulses. Over a span of femto­seconds, they followed the light energy through the scaffolding to the cellular reaction centers where energy conversion takes place.

Then came the revelation: Instead of haphazardly moving from one connective channel to the next, as might be seen in classical physics, energy traveled in several directions at the same time. The researchers theorized that only when the energy had reached the end of the series of connections could an efficient pathway retroactively be found. At that point, the quantum process collapsed, and the electrons’ energy followed that single, most effective path.

Somehow that comes as little surprise, I'm kinda surprised they assumed that classical physics governs everything for so long. I have this hunch that exploration of the quantum nature of things is like exploring the signature of 4th density and higher, no wonder it boggles our 3rd density linear minds. It just seems that that direction of research is revealing the true infinite nature of the universe where reality only exists when it is focused on by consciousness, and all possibilities "exist" in a sea of infinite potential.

Why do they assume that this is only a property of things on the atomic scale? If everything is "made up" of atoms, wouldn't it be logical to say that if atoms exist only when they are "measured/observed" by some level of consciousness, that this in turn applies to everything else as well? Is that really such a "stretch" or such a crazy idea?

 

[domi]

I have always wondered how current (electrons) figure out the 'path of least resistance' through a conductor.
This would certainly explain it.

 

[horse]

The exploration of the quantum nature of things boggles our minds because scientists are still theorizing about what is happening at the quantum level. When they explain it clearly we might understand it easier. Don’t say electron or light or gravity to a physicist or they’ll go all quantum on you. Understanding how a measuring device works and what it is measuring is critical to knowing what is being observed. A good starting point for me was when I stumbled on a website that was describing a theory of light interaction with the retina of the eye.

http://www.ghuth.com/2008/11/30/stripped-to-its-essenceplease-read/
I have received a number of requests to summarize this explanation of the vision process. This is another attempt to do so / GCH
When my explanation of the vision process is stripped to its essence, the retina of the eye, and specifically the plane of retinal outer segments, is seen to be composed of an array of more than 130 million logically spaced nanowires that function to translate incident electromagnetic wave radiation into quantized electron particles. The quantized electrons encode the information necessary to form the visual image. The historically defined cone and rod receptors are seen to function as generic structural elements that function to provide the required spacing between adjacent receptors. The ratio of the diameters of these two sizes of receptors actually corresponds to the visual band, i.e., the ratio of -1.8:1 corresponding to the 700-400 nanometer visible band. We must stop thinking of receptors as cones and rods with different functions and realize that they represent simply two sizes of generic light conversion elements.
The lateral spacing of this nanowire array is determined by a simple geometric rule that selects three wavelengths from the broader electromagnetic spectrum for detection in the vision process. These are the same three wavelengths that have historically been termed primary that underlie the correctly understood trichromicity of vision
This geometric rule derived from the retina states that: an admixture of circles of two diameters defines three center-to-center wavelength-determining dimensions with the ratio of these two diameters defining the detected bandwidth.
Further, these three wavelengths are pre-selected by the light refractive chromatic aberrration of the structure of the evolved eye and focused onto the retina. This refraction has been historically and improperly termed an aberration but it is not an aberration at all but is fundamental to the visual image formation process.
In the largest sense then it then becomes clear that the true nature of the vision process is an objectification of the basic laws of the refraction of light and that the biological morphology of the retina evolved from simple and well understood molecular (chemical/polar lipid) self-organization mechanisms. Paraphrasing LaPlace “There is no need for a creationism hypothesis”.
The three wavelengths detected by the retina have historically been correctly defined as primary but improperly termed as colors. Early vision science discerned the trichromicity of vision but from that point picked the wrong model to explain it.
Thus, at the basis of evolved biological vision is a nanostructure that geometrically selects three wavelengths from the broader electromagnetic spectrum and translates these into quantized electronic information that is used to form the visual image.
The nanostructure of the retina evolved to detect light as an electromagnetic wave with the quantum transition to electron particle occurring at the point of retinal outer segments. The result instead of imagining that “a photon interacts…” should properly be termed more generally that a quantized interaction occurs. The traditionally used construction that photons interact with pigment molecules within retinal receptors was always inaccurate. And further, it is not and never was the case that “photons go from place to place”.