Large‐scale quantum effects in biological systems

Mesquita, Marcus V.; Vasconcellos, Áurea R.; Luzzi, Roberto; Mascarenhas, S.

doi:10.1002/qua.20424

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, the calculated heating can be extreme (12), with some values exceeding T S /T ϭ 100 (i.e., T S Ͼ 30,000 K for a room temperature bath). Temperatures of this order serve primarily to indicate shortcomings in possible applications of the model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…S13, for condensates in the low temperature limit, these fluctuations become extremely large, and the time required to form the condensate increases to become of the microsecond time scale. The simulations of the condensate proposed by Mesquita et al (12,13) in protein amide-I vibrations at 300 cm Ϫ1 (10 THz) showed extremely large 400 kHz fluctuations in the strongly formed condensate.…”

Section: Coherent Motion Within Strong Frö Hlich Condensatesmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The most substantial efforts have come from Pokorný (14,15) who, interestingly, also considered microtubules. A range of other experimental detections of some of the key signatures of Fröhlich condensates have also been reported (5,11,(17)(18)(19)(20) or predicted (12,13). Pokorný's work concerns the interaction of MHz radio-frequency radiation with biological systems, and many other suggested occurrences of Fröhlich condensates also involve either adverse or medicinal effects of microwave or terahertz radiation (9,11,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26).…”

mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…4 depicting strong Fröhlich condensates in the wide-band low-frequency limit ( 1 / 0 ϭ 0.12, ប 0 /kT ϭ 1/15), the narrow-band low-frequency limit ( 1 / 0 ϭ 0.76, ប 0 /kT ϭ 1/15), and the narrow-band high-frequency limit ( 1 / 0 ϭ 0.94, ប 0 /kT ϭ 1.46). The low-temperature simulations pertain to the extensive studies of Pokorný (14,15) on the possibility of Fröhlich condensation in the MHz region and to studies of the effects of GHZ and THz radiation in biology (9,11,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), whereas the high-temperature simulations pertain directly to the extensive studies of Mesquita et al (12,13) on the possibility of Fröhlich condensation in protein amide-I vibrations. Together, these provide a rough guide to the dynamics of strong condensates over the whole parameter space of the Wu-Austin model.…”

Section: Coherent Motion Within Strong Frö Hlich Condensatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, this Fröhlich condensate has nearly all of its vibrational energy concentrated in just one of its collective motions, the motion of lowest frequency. Such a condensation would have a profound influence on the dynamical properties of the system, and there has been considerable interest in finding applications in physics (4,5), biology (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), and medicine (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). Indeed, other phenomena that give rise to similar collective properties of a system such as lasing, superconductivity, and Bose-Einstein condensation are of great importance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Weak, strong, and coherent regimes of Fröhlich condensation and their applications to terahertz medicine and quantum consciousness

Reimers¹,

McKemmish²,

McKenzie³

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 1968, Frö hlich showed that a driven set of oscillators can condense with nearly all of the supplied energy activating the vibrational mode of lowest frequency. This is a remarkable property usually compared with Bose-Einstein condensation, superconductivity, lasing, and other unique phenomena involving macroscopic quantum coherence. However, despite intense research, no unambiguous example has been documented. We determine the most likely experimental signatures of Frö hlich condensation and show that they are significant features remote from the extraordinary properties normally envisaged. Frö hlich condensates are classified into 3 types: weak condensates in which profound effects on chemical kinetics are possible, strong condensates in which an extremely large amount of energy is channeled into 1 vibrational mode, and coherent condensates in which this energy is placed in a single quantum state. Coherent condensates are shown to involve extremely large energies, to not be produced by the Wu-Austin dynamical Hamiltonian that provides the simplest depiction of Frö hlich condensates formed using mechanically supplied energy, and to be extremely fragile. They are inaccessible in a biological environment. Hence the Penrose-Hameroff orchestrated objective-reduction model and related theories for cognitive function that embody coherent Frö hlich condensation as an essential element are untenable. Weak condensates, however, may have profound effects on chemical and enzyme kinetics, and may be produced from biochemical energy or from radio frequency, microwave, or terahertz radiation. Pokorný 's observed 8.085-MHz microtubulin resonance is identified as a possible candidate, with microwave reactors (green chemistry) and terahertz medicine appearing as other feasible sources.cognitive function ͉ coherence ͉ microwave reactor ͉ orchestrated objective reduction I n 1968, Fröhlich showed how a driven collection of vibrational oscillators could achieve a highly ordered nonequilibrium state that has some properties reminiscent of Bose-Einstein condensation (1-3). Specifically, this Fröhlich condensate has nearly all of its vibrational energy concentrated in just one of its collective motions, the motion of lowest frequency. Such a condensation would have a profound influence on the dynamical properties of the system, and there has been considerable interest in finding applications in physics (4, 5), biology (6-20), and medicine (21-26). Indeed, other phenomena that give rise to similar collective properties of a system such as lasing, superconductivity, and Bose-Einstein condensation are of great importance.Fröhlich condensation has even been postulated to play a central role in cognitive function within the Penrose-Hameroff orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) (27, 28) and related (29, 30) proposals. These controversial (31) proposals evoke Fröhlich condensation to maintain coherent quantum dynamics within microtubules inside cells on a physiologically relevant time scale (at least microseconds), enabling them to...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coherent Motion Within Strong Frö Hlich Condensatesmentioning

confidence: 90%

mentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Coherent Motion Within Strong Frö Hlich Condensatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Weak, strong, and coherent regimes of Fröhlich condensation and their applications to terahertz medicine and quantum consciousness

Reimers¹,

McKemmish²,

McKenzie³

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Dissipationless Transfer of Visual Information From Retina to the Primary Visual Cortex in the Human Brain

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recently, the experiments on photosynthetic systems via "femto-second laser spectroscopy" methods have indicated that a "quantum-coherence" in the system causes a highly efficient transfer of energy to the "reaction center" (efficiency is approximately equal to 100%). A recent experiment on a single neuron has indicated that it can conduct light. Also, a re-emission of light from both photosynthetic systems and single neurons has been observed, which is called "delayed luminescence". This can be supposed as a possibility for dissipationless transfer of visual information to the human brain. In addition, a long-range Fröhlich coherence in microtubules can be a candidate for efficient transfer of light through "noisy" and complex structures of the human brain. From an informational point of view it is a legitimate question to ask how human brain can receive subtle external quantum information of photons intact when photons are in a quantum superposition and pass through very noisy and complex pathways from the eye to the brain? Here, we propose a coherent model in which quantum states of photons can be rebuilt in the human brain.

show abstract

Semi-classical statistical description of Fröhlich condensation

Preto¹

2017

J Biol Phys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fröhlich's model equations describing phonon condensation in open systems of biological relevance are reinvestigated within a semi-classical statistical framework. The main assumptions needed to deduce Fröhlich's rate equations are identified and it is shown how they lead us to write an appropriate form for the corresponding master equation. It is shown how solutions of the master equation can be numerically computed and can highlight typical features of the condensation effect. Our approach provides much more information compared to the existing ones as it allows to investigate the time evolution of the probability density function instead of following single averaged quantities. The current work is also motivated, on the one hand, by recent experimental evidences of long-lived excited modes in the protein structure of hen-egg white lysozyme, which were reported as a consequence of the condensation effect, and, on the other hand, by a growing interest in investigating long-range effects of electromagnetic origin and their influence on the dynamics of biochemical reactions.

show abstract

Large‐scale quantum effects in biological systems

Cited by 12 publications

References 59 publications

Weak, strong, and coherent regimes of Fröhlich condensation and their applications to terahertz medicine and quantum consciousness

Weak, strong, and coherent regimes of Fröhlich condensation and their applications to terahertz medicine and quantum consciousness

Dissipationless Transfer of Visual Information From Retina to the Primary Visual Cortex in the Human Brain

Semi-classical statistical description of Fröhlich condensation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About