TEDxSalford

Quantum Biology

If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.

-Neils Bohr

Happy New Year! I wish you all a TED-tastic year ahead!

It was a pleasure to have Jim Al-Khalili speaking at TEDxSalford 2.0. When he’s not busy researching and teaching theoretical physics, he uses the time to present exciting BBC science programmes including Science and Islam (2009), Chemistry: A Volatile History (2010), and more recently Order and Disorder (2012). The talk was one of my favourites of the day- mainly due to the fact that the subject matter, Quantum Biology, was so intriguing. The idea may sound new, but in fact has been around since the mid 1940s when Erwin Schrodinger, the Austrian physicist,  penned his book titled What is Life. Schrodinger felt that “living matter at the cellular level can be thought of in terms of pure physics and chemistry and that at such scales, even quantum mechanics would play a role”.

Quantum

In simple terms, Quantum Biology is the study of biology through a ‘physics’ lens, in particular a branch of physics known as Quantum Mechanics. Weird and wonderful things occur in the quantum ‘world’, a place where the conventional laws of physics don’t stand. We are largely oblivious to what is happening in the quantum ‘world’ because it all occurs at a subatomic level unlike, for example, the Newtonian laws of motion, which can be easily tested through simple experiments. Before experimental techniques became sufficiently mature, the quantum ‘world’ only existed in the form of mathematical theories, conjured up by extraordinary physicists. However, through improvements in experimental techniques, many theories have now been successfully tested and used for the advancement of technology. For example, quantum mechanics has been fundamental to the understanding of semiconductors, which in turn have laid down the foundation for the development of modern electronics and microprocessors.

Going through walls

Magic you might say, but in the quantum ‘world’ particles do in fact do things equivalent to going through walls. The proper phrase for this phenomenon is ‘quantum tunnelling’ and is one of Jim Al-Khalili’s research interests. He, and other like minded physicists, propose that this phenomenon can be applied in a biological context, particularly in the area of genetic mutations. In his own words:

…certain genetic mutations take place when a hydrogen bond is broken between two base pairs in the DNA and a new adjacent bond is made. This has been successfully described in terms of a proton quantum tunnelling between two potential wells.

The theory is not without contention- in fact some biologists interpret it as unnecessary meddling by overzealous physicists! For observers it’ll be interesting to see who wins in this contest between these two branches of science – I’m pretty sure who I’d put my money on!