Quantum Physics Meets Biology

Overview

Journal HFSP J

Specialty Biology

Date 2010 Mar 18

PMID 20234806

Citations 24

Authors

Markus Arndt

Thomas Juffmann

Vlatko Vedral

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Quantum physics and biology have long been regarded as unrelated disciplines, describing nature at the inanimate microlevel on the one hand and living species on the other hand. Over the past decades the life sciences have succeeded in providing ever more and refined explanations of macroscopic phenomena that were based on an improved understanding of molecular structures and mechanisms. Simultaneously, quantum physics, originally rooted in a world-view of quantum coherences, entanglement, and other nonclassical effects, has been heading toward systems of increasing complexity. The present perspective article shall serve as a "pedestrian guide" to the growing interconnections between the two fields. We recapitulate the generic and sometimes unintuitive characteristics of quantum physics and point to a number of applications in the life sciences. We discuss our criteria for a future "quantum biology," its current status, recent experimental progress, and also the restrictions that nature imposes on bold extrapolations of quantum theory to macroscopic phenomena.

Citing Articles

Lighting the Path: Raman Spectroscopy's Journey Through the Microbial Maze.

Salbreiter M, Frempong S, Even S, Wagenhaus A, Girnus S, Rosch P Molecules. 2025; 29(24).

PMID: 39770046 PMC: 11870064. DOI: 10.3390/molecules29245956.

Frequency-Dependent Antioxidant Responses in HT-1080 Human Fibrosarcoma Cells Exposed to Weak Radio Frequency Fields.

Gurhan H, Barnes F Antioxidants (Basel). 2024; 13(10).

PMID: 39456490 PMC: 11504554. DOI: 10.3390/antiox13101237.

Open Systems, Quantum Probability, and Logic for Quantum-like Modeling in Biology, Cognition, and Decision-Making.

Khrennikov A Entropy (Basel). 2023; 25(6).

PMID: 37372230 PMC: 10296982. DOI: 10.3390/e25060886.

From the origins to the stream of consciousness and its neural correlates.

Yurchenko S Front Integr Neurosci. 2022; 16:928978.

PMID: 36407293 PMC: 9672924. DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2022.928978.

Mathematical Modeling of Ion Quantum Tunneling Reveals Novel Properties of Voltage-Gated Channels and Quantum Aspects of Their Pathophysiology in Excitability-Related Disorders.

Qaswal A, Ababneh O, Khreesha L, Al-Ani A, Suleihat A, Abbad M Pathophysiology. 2022; 28(1):116-154.

PMID: 35366274 PMC: 8830480. DOI: 10.3390/pathophysiology28010010.

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