''Quantum Aspects of Life'', a book published in 2008 with a foreword by

Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, Philosophy of science, philosopher of science and Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics i ...

, explores the open question of the role of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

at molecular scales of relevance to biology. The book contains chapters written by various world-experts from a 2003 symposium and includes two debates from 2003 to 2004; giving rise to a mix of both sceptical and sympathetic viewpoints. The book addresses questions of

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

nanoscience Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

quantum chemistry Quantum chemistry, also called molecular quantum mechanics, is a branch of physical chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics to chemical systems, particularly towards the quantum-mechanical calculation of electronic contributions ...

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

, complexity theory, and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

that are inspired by the 1944 seminal book ''

What Is Life? ''What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell'' is a 1944 science book written for the lay reader by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February1943, under t ...

'' by

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

* Foreword by

Section 1: ''Emergence and Complexity'' * Chapter 1: "A Quantum Origin of Life?" by Paul C. W. Davies * Chapter 2: "

Quantum Mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

and Emergence" by

Seth Lloyd Seth Lloyd (born August 2, 1960) is a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research area is the interplay of information with complex systems, especially quantum systems. He has perfor ...

Section 2: ''Quantum Mechanisms in Biology'' * Chapter 3: "Quantum Coherence and the Search for the First Replicator" by

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili (; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist and science populariser. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is a ...

and Johnjoe McFadden * Chapter 4: "Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics in Photosynthesis" by Alexandra Olaya-Castro, Francesca Fassioli Olsen, Chiu Fan Lee, and Neil F. Johnson * Chapter 5: "Modeling Quantum Decoherence in

Biomolecules A biomolecule or biological molecule is loosely defined as a molecule produced by a living organism and essential to one or more typically biological processes. Biomolecules include large macromolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipi ...

" by Jacques Bothma, Joel Gilmore, and Ross H. McKenzie Section 3: ''The Biological Evidence'' * Chapter 6: "Molecular Evolution: A Role for Quantum Mechanics in the Dynamics of

Molecular Machines Molecular machines are a class of molecules typically described as an assembly of a discrete number of molecular components intended to produce mechanical movements in response to specific stimuli, mimicking macromolecule, macromolecular devices ...

that Read and Write DNA" by Anita Goel * Chapter 7: "Memory Depends on the

Cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is compos ...

, but is it Quantum?" by Andreas Mershin and Dimitri V. Nanopoulos * Chapter 8: "Quantum Metabolism and Allometric Scaling Relations in Biology" by Lloyd Demetrius * Chapter 9: "Spectroscopy of the Genetic Code" by Jim D. Bashford and Peter D. Jarvis * Chapter 10: "Towards Understanding the Origin of Genetic Languages" by Apoorva D. Patel Section 4: ''Artificial Quantum Life'' * Chapter 11: "Can Arbitrary Quantum Systems Undergo Self-Replication?" by Arun K. Pati and Samuel L. Braunstein * Chapter 12: "A Semi-Quantum Version of the Game of Life" by Adrian P. Flitney and Derek Abbott * Chapter 13: "Evolutionary Stability in Quantum Games" by Azhar Iqbal and Taksu Cheon * Chapter 14: "Quantum Transmemetic Intelligence" by Edward W. Piotrowski and Jan Sładkowski Section 5: ''The Debate'' * Chapter 15: "Dreams versus Reality: Plenary Debate Session on Quantum Computing" ''For panel:'' Carlton M. Caves, Daniel Lidar, Howard Brandt, Alexander R. Hamilton; ''Against panel:'' David K. Ferry, Julio Gea-Banacloche, Sergey M. Bezrukov, Laszlo B. Kish; ''Debate chair:'' Charles R. Doering; ''Transcript Editor:'' Derek Abbott. * Chapter 16: "Plenary Debate: Quantum Effects in Biology: Trivial or Not?" ''For panel:'' Paul C. W. Davies, Stuart Hameroff, Anton Zeilinger, Derek Abbott; ''Against panel:'' Jens Eisert, Howard M. Wiseman, Sergey M. Bezrukov,

Hans Frauenfelder Hans Frauenfelder (July 28, 1922 – July 10, 2022) was an American physicist and biophysicist notable for his discovery of perturbed angular correlation (PAC) in 1951. In the modern day, PAC spectroscopy is widely used in the study of condensed ...

; ''Debate chair:'' Julio Gea-Banacloche; ''Transcript Editor:'' Derek Abbott. * Chapter 17: "Non-trivial Quantum Effects in Biology: A Skeptical Physicist’s View" Howard M. Wiseman and Jens Eisert * Chapter 18: "That’s Life! — The Geometry of Electron Clouds" Stuart Hameroff

References

* * * {{cite journal , last1=Rinaldi , first1=Andrea , title=When life gets physical: Quantum effects in selected biological systems have been confirmed experimentally, but how widespread is their role remains unclear , journal=EMBO Reports , date=January 2012 , volume=13 , issue=1 , pages=24–27 , doi=10.1038/embor.2011.236 , pmid=22173031 , pmc=3246260

External links

Book's homepage at ICP
2008 non-fiction books Biology books Biophysics Mathematical and theoretical biology Popular physics books Quantum biology Books by Paul Davies

Contents

See also

References

External links