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Science

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erronis

(20,894 posts)
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 10:41 AM Mar 2025

Scientists Just Discovered Quantum Signals Inside Life Itself [View all]

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-just-discovered-quantum-signals-inside-life-itself/

Biological systems, once thought too chaotic for quantum effects, may be quietly leveraging quantum mechanics to process information faster than anything man-made.

New research suggests this isn’t just happening in brains, but across all life, including bacteria and plants.

. . .

Using principles of quantum mechanics and recent QBL findings showing quantum optical properties in cytoskeletal filaments, Kurian has proposed a radically updated upper limit on the total information-processing capacity of carbon-based life throughout Earth’s history. His findings, published in Science Advances, also suggest a possible link between this biological limit and the computational bounds of all matter in the observable universe.

“This work connects the dots among the great pillars of twentieth-century physics – thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics—for a major paradigm shift across the biological sciences, investigating the feasibility and implications of quantum information processing in wetware at ambient temperatures,” said Kurian. “Physicists and cosmologists should wrestle with these findings, especially as they consider the origins of life on Earth and elsewhere in the habitable universe, evolving in concert with the electromagnetic field.”

. . .

The standard model for biochemical signaling involves ions moving across cells or membranes, generating spikes in an electrochemical process that takes a few milliseconds for each signal. But neuroscience and other biological researchers have only recently become aware that this isn’t the whole story. Superradiance in these cytoskeletal filaments happens in about a picosecond – a millionth of a microsecond. Their tryptophan networks could be functioning as quantum fiber optics that allow eukaryotic cells to process information billions of times faster than chemical processes alone would allow.

“The implications of Kurian’s insights are staggering,” said Professor Majed Chergui of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste (Italy), who supported the 2024 experimental study. “Quantum biology – in particular our observations of superradiant signatures from standard protein spectroscopy methods, guided by his theory—has the potential to open new vistas for understanding the evolution of living systems, in light of photophysics.”

. . .


Reference: “Computational capacity of life in relation to the universe” by Philip Kurian, 28 March 2025, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt4623
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