

Room temperature quantum transfer in biological systems - jane_is_here
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140109/ncomms4012/full/ncomms4012.html

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punnerud
You should watch this before looking at the article:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_al_khalili_how_quantum_biology_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_al_khalili_how_quantum_biology_might_explain_life_s_biggest_questions)

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deepnet
Brilliant talk, more:

Jim Al-Khalili's Quantum Biology Conference, Videos of talks, IAS Surrey 2012

[http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/quantumbiology/](http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/quantumbiology/)

BBC 4 is currently airing Jim's 4 part Science Documentary on Biology
exploiting Quantum Weirdness.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04v85cj/the-secrets-
of...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04v85cj/the-secrets-of-quantum-
physics-2-let-there-be-life)

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robbiep
This is not brand new (not this particular research, but quantum systems in
nature). It has long been known that some enzymatic reactions take advantage
of quantum tunnelling to bridge reaction energies

\- sources to come (mobile)

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dekhn
I'm not sure I've seen reliable examples other than photosynthesis, and it
hasn't been "a long time". Happy to inspect your sources.

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Retric
Depends on what you mean by reliable examples, but it's been researched for
well over 25 years. And point where something goes from probably to clear cut
gets fuzzy.

(2009) "Quantum biology? Tunneling in enzymes" _Over the past two decades the
possibility of quantum tunneling of protons in enzymes has attracted
considerable attention. (See for example a piece in Nature by Philip Ball (my
favourite science writer) or the proceedings of a meeting at the Royal Society

The observed large kinetic isotope effects and their temperature dependence
are inconsistent with semi-classical transition state theory,_

[http://condensedconcepts.blogspot.com/2009/07/quantum-
biolog...](http://condensedconcepts.blogspot.com/2009/07/quantum-biology-
tunneling-in-enzymes.html)

PS: This post ended with _I align myself with the skeptics_ , but it's hardly
a new idea.

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dekhn
That work is highly speculative (I've studied, but not as my primary work,
enzyme kinetics and reaction mechanisms). Finding holes in transition state
theory isn't hard and I don't see that it's necessary to invoke tunneling
protons to come up with better theories. Even the physical experiments cited
in the Ball article, are pretty speculative, and aren't accepted by the
mainstream.

I find it pretty amusing, because I proposed tunneling protons in a journal
club once, but got laughed down by all the physicists who said "that's silly,
proton mass is too high, so probability of proton tunneling is basically zero"
(they were being overconfident).

The only real work in this area, which is to say, work that is heavily backed
up with data, is the work on quantum mechanisms in photosynthesis:
[http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/05/10/untangling-quantum-
enta...](http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/05/10/untangling-quantum-
entanglement/) This work, since it has a huge amount of high quality
experimental work, is considered pretty solid.

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theophrastus
And i had a committee member forbid me from including quantum effects in the
modeling of _my_ enzyme. He said it was "too speculative". All science is
speculative, until it isn't. You would be well served to reduce your "highly
speculative" filters. That is, continue to propose your interesting new chains
of causation. If there were braver people than me (which shouldn't be hard)
then perhaps understanding enzyme mechanisms would be further along by now.

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dekhn
People need to back up their speculations with evidence.

Also, did you push back against the committee member? Show data? At least
create a plausible doubt in their mind?

The reason enzyme mechanisms are so hard to study is that getting proteins
into a state where you can capture data from that femtosecond where the
reaction occurs is hard. Recent improvements in free electron lasers for
fourth generation synchrotrons will greatly improve this.

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castratikron
I did some research on this top a few years ago. It's interesting that quantum
behavior could exist in such a warm, wet and complex environment.

