It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Photosynthetic organisms harvest light from the sun to produce the energy they need to survive. A new paper published by University of Chicago researchers reveals their secret: exploiting quantum mechanics.
“Before this study, the scientific community saw quantum signatures generated in biological systems and asked the question, were these results just a consequence of biology being built from molecules, or did they have a purpose?” said Greg Engel, Professor of Chemistry and senior author on the study. “This is the first time we are seeing biology actively exploiting quantum effects.”
They found that the bacterium uses a quantum mechanical effect called vibronic mixing to move energy between two different pathways, depending on whether or not there’s oxygen around. Vibronic mixing involves vibrational and electronic characteristics in molecules coupling to one another. In essence, the vibrations mix so completely with the electronic states that their identities become inseparable. This bacterium uses this phenomenon to guide energy where it needs it to go.
If there’s no oxygen around and the bacterium is safe, the bacterium uses vibronic mixing by matching the energy difference between two electronic states in an assembly of molecules and proteins called the FMO complex, with the energy of the vibration of a bacteriochlorophyll molecule. This encourages the energy to flow through the “normal” pathway toward the photosynthetic reaction center, which is packed full of chlorophyll.
But if there is oxygen around, the organism has evolved to steer the energy through a less direct path where it can be quenched. (Quenching energy is similar to putting a palm on a vibrating guitar string to dissipate energy.) This way, the bacterium loses some energy but saves the entire system.
To achieve this effect, a pair of cysteine residues in the photosynthetic complex acts as a trigger: They each react with the oxygen in the environment by losing a proton, which disrupts the vibronic mixing. This means that energy now preferentially moves through the alternative pathway, where it can be safely quenched. This principle is a bit like blocking two lanes on a superhighway and diverting some traffic to local roads where there are many more exits.
“What’s interesting about this result is that we are seeing the protein turn the vibronic coupling on and off in response to environmental changes in the cell,” said Jake Higgins, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and the lead author of the paper. “The protein uses the quantum effect to protect the organism from oxidative damage.”
A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Elsevier’s Physics of Life Reviews (open access) claims that consciousness derives from deeper-level, finer-scale activities inside brain neurons.
The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in microtubules inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions.
originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: neoholographic
Now, the big question....
How do I bend these quantum vibrations to my will and cast magic missiles and fireballs?
originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: neoholographic
Now, the big question....
How do I bend these quantum vibrations to my will and cast magic missiles and fireballs?
originally posted by: neoholographic
originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: neoholographic
Now, the big question....
How do I bend these quantum vibrations to my will and cast magic missiles and fireballs?
What's very interesting is that some scientist believe space-time is a quantum error correcting code. This means that physical qubits(space) are encoded with information(logical qubits) and if we learn the code, we would be able to write the code on qubits and spacetime would run the code.
We could build cars, buildings, planets and more out of nothing but information. We would be programming the universe. You write the code on qubits for a house and a house will just appear.
How Space and Time Could Be a Quantum Error-Correcting Code
The same codes needed to thwart errors in quantum computers may also give the fabric of space-time its intrinsic robustness.
www.quantamagazine.org...
No kidding its how our immune system harnesses bacteria to protect us.....our immune system is really harnesses bacteria that work for us.
originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: neoholographic
DOn't the Beach Boys have a song about Good Vibrations? This is a cool discovery that could completely shift the mind-set of humanity. It could also plot a new course for our understanding of the world and the Universe!
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: one4all
No kidding its how our immune system harnesses bacteria to protect us.....our immune system is really harnesses bacteria that work for us.
No.
The bacteria have made themselves indispensable to human life. We cannot live without them and they have been around a hell of a lot longer than we have. We are their slaves.