Biology's Quantum Secrets May Be Classical Mimicry, Not True Quantum Effects
Biology might not be quantum, but its math is quantumlike
For decades, scientists have searched for genuine quantum effects in biology, from photosynthesis to bird navigation. But new research suggests that life may not need quantum mechanics at all. Chemist Gregory Scholes and colleagues show that complex classical networks of oscillators can produce 'quantumlike' states that mathematically mimic quantum behavior. These emergent states, described as vectors in Hilbert space, could explain biological efficiency without fragile quantum coherence. The finding challenges the field's assumptions and opens a new direction for understanding life's mysteries.
Maybe quantum biology, at the biggest scales, means using 3 1/2 billion years of evolution to work out how to get the functionality that you could get from quantum systems.
- hankbond
This is some of the coolest photography I have ever seen. Using multiple shots as a "discrete long exposure": I have never thought to do in this way.
- airstrike
I feel like a higher n-dimensional being observing time in a completely different way through those images, as if I could touch the bird at any of those points if I wanted.
Such a simple concept but really remarkable work.
- OutOfHere
I feel there is enough happening in the brain that we need to understand it further beyond classical physics can allow. I suspect especially that a mother and child share a strong lifelong subspace bond, whereby they can sense one another's state, in a way that logic or physics cannot explain. This sensing bond probably exists with others too but at an exponentially weaker level. I am not asserting anything, only begging inquiry.