Why Does Quantum Entanglement Defy All Logic? | Secrets Of Quantum Physics | Progress

Welcome stranger to a new and very strange world of nature, it is dominated by the strange subatomic particles of

quantum

physics

. As a physicist, I have spent my working life studying how these particles behave in the laboratory, but now I turn to the world of nature. natural world I am on a mission to prove that

quantum

physics

can solve biology's greatest mysteries. This is a real adventure for me. I'm way out of my comfort zone trying to apply the very careful ideas I know in a Physics lab to the messy world of living things. I think quantum physics could hold many of the

secrets

of life that lie deep in cells. of animals particles slide across walls like ghosts when plants capture sunlight their cells are invaded by bright waves that can be everywhere at the same time and even our human senses are tuning into strange quantum vibrations In the fantastic world of quantum biology, life is a game of chance played according to quantum rules.

This is what I hope to convince you of to show you that quantum mechanics is essential. by explaining many of life's important processes and potentially that quantum mechanics may even underpin the very existence of life itself, thank you My quest begins with one of the most majestic views of natural migration each winter. Barnacle geese arrive at exactly the right time at the same Scottish location. River, the end of an epic 2000 mile journey from Svalbard, high above the Arctic Circle, of course many birds head south for the winter and then return home for the summer, but for decades exactly how they navigated birds with such precision was one of the greatest mysteries of biology, which is why most A recent discovery has caused a sensation in recent years.

A species of bird has helped create a scientific revolution. I was one of many physicists who were surprised to discover that it navigates using one of the strangest tricks in all of science. Use a quirk. of quantum mechanics one fooled even the greatest physicists, from Richard Feynman to Albert Einstein himself, so you will be surprised to discover the identity of this mysterious creature say hello to the quantum Robin this is the European Robin every year that migrates from the north From Europe to the tip of Spain and back in this laboratory in the forest biologist Henrik Morrison is trying to solve the mystery of how he

does

it but he finds himself in my world The strange world of quantum mechanics quantum mechanics describes very strange behavior of subatomic particles in In this realm of the very small we have to abandon common sense and intuition.

Instead, this is a world where objects can spread out like waves. Quantum particles can be in many places at once and send mysterious communications to each other. I set out to understand how the bird finds itself. In its own way, but it turned out that the data increasingly pointed towards this as the only explanation that could unite all the different results investigating a long-standing theory robins navigate the Earth's magnetic field their laboratory is an ingenious magnetic cage to birds and these plastic cones lined with scratch-sensitive paper provide the key measurements. Thank you. Henrik's artificial magnetic field is like Earth's, except he can point it in any direction he wants.

Inside their cones, robins always respond to the field by leaving scratches in only one direction. The big mystery is how Earth's magnetic field is incredibly weak, too weak for any living creature to detect, but Henrik has found an intriguing clue by giving the quantum Robin a mask. We have a small leather hood similar to the one he puts on a falcon. I know, but only for Robin and you have a hole in front of one eye or a hole in front of the other eye, but what we can see is that if you cover the right eye, you disable the magnetic fertilizer processing on the left side. of the brain If you cover this eye, you turn off the compass in this part of the brain.

Robin's magnetic compass appears to be in his eyes. I can show you what's going on using my own eye. We now use our eyes to see, but we also have a second light detection mechanism. If I shine this torch into my eye, you can see my pupil close. It's basically a defense mechanism to protect my eyes. My eye responds to light particles or photons. The energy provided by photons is clearly. enough to activate chemical reactions after all, that's what controls my eye muscles. The light must be causing similar chemical reactions in Robin's eyes. In fact, it is the power source for a unique form of magnetic compass within your cells in the strange world of subatomic particles.

A place where only quantum physics can explain what is happening. Let's see why we imagine the chemical reactions in Robin's eye take place in mountains and valleys of energy. For a reaction to start, molecules have to be pushed to the top of a mountain thanks to Henrik's experiments. We know that light

does

most of the hard work, but when it reaches the free peak the molecule becomes incredibly sensitive to the slightest touch. The key point here is that Robin's chemical compass is now balanced on an energy peak between two valleys going in one direction and producing one. set of chemicals the other a different set now even a small change in the earth's magnetic field can push the molecule over the top, but the way this happens defies common sense.

The last piece of the puzzle depends on one of the truly mind-blowing ideas in physics. don't worry if you find it hard to understand even albert einstein called it creepy the idea is called quantum

entanglement

it involves particles that seem to communicate faster than the speed of light in 1935 einstein published a famous paper arguing that it was impossible but einstein was wrong In recent years extremely delicate experiments have shown that subatomic particles really are entangled, meaning they can subtly and instantaneously influence each other across space and now it appears the same thing happens inside Robin's eye when a photon enters the Robin's eye It creates what is called an entangled pair of electrons.

This is how it works. Each electron has two possible states for simplicity. I choose to call them red and green. Now this is the strange thing until you measure it, it is neither one nor the other, but both at the same time. At the same time, think of electrons as spinning disks, they are simultaneously red and green, but by shooting a dart I can force the first electron to do one thing or the other, so far it's just a game of chance, I don't know what I'll do. get until I try, so I know my first electron is red.

Suppose I now measure the second electron. You'd think you'd have a 50% chance of getting red or green after all, that's what you'd expect in the normal everyday world. but you would be wrong on quantum

entanglement

, electrons are mysteriously linked, for example if I turn red on the first, I always turn red on the second, it is no longer a game of chance, it is as if the first electron is telling you the second what you should do. That's why Einstein called it creepy. Electrons seem to know that they should both have the same color no matter how far away they are.

The really important part is that the two electrons don't have to be the same color, they can be entangled in a different color. so that if the first electron is red the second is always green it seems that this mysterious connection is the ultimate secret of quantum Robin's compass is the direction of the Earth's magnetic field can report the result near the equator they are most likely to be Reds are red, but near the pole they are more likely to be red and green and that is the vital factor that ultimately tips the balance of Robin's chemical compass.

Variations in the Earth's magnetic field change the way the electrons in Robin's eye entangle and that is enough to activate his compass. Now we can finally see how something is weak as the Earth's magnetic field can tilt that balance in one sense or another. If the message changes the chemical reaction tilts in a different way by changing Robin's compass reading it suddenly seems like it is a fundamentally quantum mechanical phenomenon in Birds that would be one of the first, if not the first, in biology. Biologists better get used to the weirdness of physics. Robin navigates spooky quantum entanglement to see subtle quantum effects even in the austere, controlled environment of a physics lab. really difficult and yet here is the robin doing it with ease.

These experiments are real and verifiable and although I am seeing them with my own eyes, I still find it difficult to believe that foreign navigation has brought physics and nature together like quantum science. In biology, there is a whole new world to explore, but its pioneers have discovered that it not only affects birds, it affects each and every one of us because the latest experiments say that you are doing quantum physics right now and, believe it or no, you are doing it. with your nose hello girl our sense of smell is remarkable and quite different from our other senses of sight and hearing among the thousands of smells that we can recognize many of them can trigger very powerful memories and emotions it is as if our sense of smell It is connected directly to our inner consciousness, it is also different in another way: the other senses of sight and hearing depend on us detecting light and sound waves, but our sense of smell involves detecting particles, chemical molecules.

Recently, scientists have begun to realize that when it comes to our sense of smell, something very mysterious has been going on for decades. Biologists thought they knew exactly how our noses detect different strange chemicals, but physicists like Jenny Brooks think there could be a new ingredient in the mix and, to many people, it smells like quantum mechanics. We talk about the sense of smell and often the science of perfection as a problem that has been solved and we know everything and we know a lot about it, we know about the ingredients, we know about the equipment that we use to smell, but I would say that there is a little more to understand to understand more I need someone to help me with a sniff test to sniff it out.

Every human being emits a cocktail of chemicals. Jen's nose could detect a single gram of it. It dissolves completely. city ​​so that I don't have problems finding the man I'm looking for. She meets Colin the Gardener, a man who is used to smelling flowers at that time. Colin. I'm going to test your sniffing skills. Brilliant. I have a selection of chemicals. here and I want you to tell me what they remind you of, okay, I'll start yours easily oh yeah, like a peppermint steam massage, it's yeah, but it's that scent, here's the next one, ah, you should be able to recognize.

I'm baking with my daughter um icing sugar vanilla vanilla yes, when our noses detect a chemical, they trigger a nerve signal to our brain, but different chemicals create different sensations. The standard explanation for this has to do with the shape of the molecules, the conventional theory that says in the 1950s that the odor molecule has a particular shape that allows it to fit into the receptor molecules in our nose. If it is shaped correctly, it is like a hand in a glove or a key in a lock. In fact it is called Lock and Key Mechanism with the wrong shape it will not fit in the receptor but with the correct shape it fits in the receptor triggering that unique smell sensation but the receptors are connected to different parts of our brain so That when a menthol molecule locks on its specific receptor site, it triggers that cool, minty feeling, you know, but the lock and key theory has always had a problem and Colin's next test will show you why, what about this one?

Quite a strong smell, oh yes, what does it remind you of? What does it evoke? up what Memories I think Christmas Christmas cake yes, yes, that's it, yes, very, yes. Colin identified the smell as marzipan or almonds, in fact it is due to an aromatic molecule called benzaldehyde, what I didn't give him to smell was this other chemical cyanide, both benzaldehyde and cyanide have the same smell, they both smell like almonds, but These molecules have very different shapes, so the lock and key mechanism as an explanation for how we smell cannot be the whole story, so why do two molecules with different shapes smell the same?

Quantum biology has a surprising explanation: it says that our noses don't smell chemical molecules, they are listening to them, it's not just the shape of an odor molecule that matters, let's take a closer look at this model of a cyanide molecule, the white ball here. is a hydrogen atom and the gray bars are the bonds that make itheld together with carbon and nitrogen, but the reality is not so simple. I can give you a better idea of ​​what's going on if we look at this larger white ball. See, atoms don't stay still, the bonds that hold them together are like vibrating strings and that gives us a whole new way of thinking about smell.

The strange new quantum theory of smell is all about vibrating bonds. Chemical molecules are playing music to our noses. Imagine that a receptor molecule in my nose is like my guitar before it can make a sound, an aromatic molecule has to enter my nose and when that aromatic molecule is in place, its chemical bonds provide the strings and it is ready to be touched, the receptor molecules contain Quantum. Electron particles when they jump from one atom to another make the bonds of the odor molecule vibrate like my fingers playing the string of a strange guitar. The notable thing about this theory is that it tells us that our sense of smell has to do with the vibrations of molecules or in the form of waves. behavior and not so much about the shape of a particular odor molecule, our sense of smell may be much more like our sense of hearing: a particular molecule, say that of grass, will vibrate at a particular frequency, but a A different molecule, say that of mint, will vibrate at a particular frequency. a different frequency, this would explain why cyanide smells like almonds.

The two molecules have different shapes, but their chemical bonds simply vibrate at the same frequency, the constant vibration in the Adrian is almost literally like a sound particle, so yes, we are saying that the process of smell could be exactly like a acoustic resonance, it might be very analogous to hearing and seeing, actually, but can we really? We will be listening with our noses. A strange theory needs a strange experiment to prove it. Is that how it works. The scientists used a fruity-smelling molecule like orange blossom, but if the theory is correct, then it should be able to change its smell by changing its vibrations.

It contains many hydrogen atoms like this bonded to carbon atoms, but what would happen if you replaced all of these atoms with a different form of hydrogen called deuterium? It won't change the shape of the molecule but it will change the way it vibrates and here's why deuterium is twice as heavy as normal hydrogen and that's why it vibrates more slowly now different vibrations mean different smells so if you were to create A new form of this chemical packed with deuterium atoms instead of normal hydrogen should smell different. Quantum biologists found a unique way to carry out this experiment using real fruit aroma experts - fruit flies first, the flies were trained to avoid the modified version of the fruit molecule to be honest, I have no idea how it works. train a fruit fly, but apparently you can, in the lab the flies had to go through some kind of strange maze, then they were given the option to go right to get the pleasant fruit smell or left to get the nasty modified version, they could definitely smell the difference, always preferred the original and came back.

The strange fly experiment provides strong evidence that the quantum theory of smell really works. But ultimately, it works in harmony with the lock and key. Theory: First, the odor molecule fits into the receptor and then those molecular vibrations take over the strange flies. Humans and dogs may be smelling the sound of quantum biology. Our sense of smell is fascinating and mysterious, but to think that when I encounter a particular smell and that it triggers a whole wave of memories and emotions in my mind that is based on that it is Triggered by quantum mechanics, I think it does. laughs even more remarkable The mysterious influence of quantum physics reaches every corner of the natural world, in fact, it inhabits the walls of every living cell on Earth because the latest experiments suggest a magical solution to one of nature's greatest mysteries : the miracle of metamorphosis.

The transformation of a tadpole into a frog has never been fully explained. In just over six weeks, the tadpole breaks down and then reassembles into its adult form, but the big mystery is how it happens so quickly. When you think about it, there is nothing more extraordinary than a tadpole that turns into a frog, for example its tail, over a period of several weeks, is reabsorbed into the body and the proteins and fibers that make up the flesh are recycled to form the new limbs for the frog, but for this to happen billions and billions of chemicals are needed.

The reactions work together breaking down molecules forming new ones in a carefully orchestrated dance, but the fibers that hold the flesh together are very, very strong, they are a bit like these ropes that hold my raft together in order to dismantle the raft, I would have to undo these themselves. Tight knots, you can think of it as this pole being held together by long ropes of proteins knotted together by chemical bonds. The bonds are so strong that they should last for years, much longer than the entire lifespan of the tadpole, so how can it become a frog?

In just a few weeks, the explanation involves one of life's most important molecules. Little gadgets in all of our cells called enzymes. Enzymes are the real machinery of the cell. In reality, they are the little machines inside the cells that carry out the chemical transformations involved. In everyday life they are absolutely crucial and the reason they are so crucial is because what they can do is speed up chemical reactions by enormous amounts. Let me show you how quickly the enzymes get to work inside this bottle of substance. Called hydrogen peroxide, you're probably most familiar with it because it's the chemical used to bleach hair.

I actually got this sample from my local hairdressers. Hydrogen peroxide is also produced in the body and it is the liver's job to get rid of it now. The way it does this is by using an enzyme that breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. Now to show you how fast this enzyme works. I'm going to do a quick demonstration. Here I have some liver that I have cut into to release the enzyme now watch what happens when I add this liver mixture containing the enzyme to the hydrogen peroxide watch how quickly the oxygen is released just one hundred grams of liver fired my rocket almost 20 feet liver enzymes make the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide incredibly efficient it happens a trillion times faster, that is, a million million times faster than it would otherwise be in Metamorphoses, it is the enzymes that They dismantle the tadpole's tail, and that means breaking down an incredibly tough protein called collagen.

Collagen is one of the most important proteins for the bio

logic

al world. the protein that really gives that resilience, that elasticity to the tendons, to the cartilage and, of course, also to our skin, and in the story of the tadpole, it provides the type of scaffolding that supports that structure now that the tadpole transforms into a frog . What you need to do is essentially have a collagenase enzyme that will literally cut the collagen into small pieces and therefore take that scaffold apart, but how do enzymes break down chemical bonds so incredibly fast? Let me show you why it's a problem only Quantum Biology can solve, think of it this way, all these different parts of the knot are like subatomic particles, electrons, protons that hold the different parts of the molecule together.

Now to untie the knot the enzymes have to move the protons but as you can see this requires quite a bit of effort and a lot of time if there are a lot of knots to untie physicists have a fancy way of saying exert effort to do something they say you have to overcome an energy barrier okay, here is my energy barrier and here is my proton, the breaking part needs enough energy to overcome the barrier, the problem is when we calculate how long it would take, it is too slow to break the tail of a tadpole , thanks, but this is where protons become ghosts, I don't blame you for that.

Thinking that this is an idea that some clever theorist came up with, that it is just mere speculation. Something we don't have proof of, but we do. It takes place all the time in the quantum world. Protons don't have to cross barriers, they can. The tunnel-through-tunnel curtain strikes at the very heart of what's strangest about quantum mechanics. It is unlike anything we see in our everyday world. A quantum particle can tunnel from one place to another even if it has to pass through an impenetrable barrier. They are not. Solid objects like balls in our everyday world have diffuse wave behavior that allows them to filter through an energy barrier.

A particle can disappear on one side of the barrier and instantly reappear on the other. In nuclear physics, this effect is a proven effect. In fact, without quantum tunneling, the sun simply wouldn't shine, but I never thought I'd see it in a tadpole. It's hard to emphasize how strange this process is. It's like I walk up to a solid brick wall and, like a ghost, disappear from one. side and reappear on the other, the most important advantage of tunneling is its much faster speed than if the protons passed through the barrier as a nuclear physicist. Quantum tunneling is my daily bread.

Subatomic particles like protons do it all the time, but what does this have to do? Do With Biology, the answer is that without quantum ghosts the metamorphosis of a tadpole would be impossible. Remember that chemical bonds are basically knots. The knot has the two short ends of the rope on the same side, while this one has the two short ends on opposite sides. Now you think that wouldn't make a difference, but you see that this knot is very difficult to break, while this one is. easy Quantum tunneling turns strong knots into weak ones, so in a tadpole the entire collagen structure breaks easily and eventually other enzymes rebuild it into a frog shape.

Quantum tunneling of particles is one of those strange features of the subatomic world that a physicist like me is very familiar with, after all, it is responsible for radioactive decay and it occurs inside the sun, it is the reason why the Sun and all the stars shine, but discovering what happens inside every cell of every living organism on the planet because every cell contains enzymes now seems really surprising to me. Quantum biology casts its spell on every living creature we have ever seen, as birds, mammals, insects and amphibians are governed by the strangest laws of science, but the most dramatic recent advance concerns the unique life process in the one they all rely on.

These life forms depend on a version of air and sunlight in plants. A rare specimen is a laryx decidua or European larch. It is about thirty meters high and right at this moment it passes right by this side of the planet Venus. There is a bullet with the name of this tree. The bullet is a photon that is nearing the end of its long journey from the Sun. Its final destination is to initiate a series of chemical reactions that support all life on Earth. Photosynthesis creates sixteen thousand tons of new plant life on Earth every second of every day and it is incredible to me to think that our existence on this planet depends on what happens in the next billionth of a second.

The crucial first stage of photosynthesis is capturing energy from the Sun. It is almost one hundred percent efficient. Far superior to any human technology. How every plant on Earth accomplishes this is one of the great enigmas of biology. When it turned out that quantum weirdness might have the answer, physicists could barely believe it. It was like a revelation. It was very exciting because I was used to working on problems. They were quite abstract experiments. I am a theorist, but I always related my theory to experiments that were very clean in the laboratory, things that you can control, but now I discover that the things I knew can help me better understand how nature works.

I don't really know scientifically, it was like an inspiration for my life as a scientist, so I really, as I would say, fell in love with this field. The biology textbook says that the color of green plants comes from chlorophyll molecules inside living cells. They absorb sunlight, this energy is then transferred incredibly quickly to the food factory at the heart of the cell, the entire event takes just a millionth of a millionth of a second, when the photon hits the cell, it removes an electron from the cell. . In the middle of a chlorophyll molecule, this creates a small packet of energy called an output, the exoton then bounces through a forest of chlorophyll molecules until it reaches what is now called the reaction center, that is where its energy to drivechemical processes that create everything. -important biomolecules of life the problem is that the output needs to find its way to the reaction center first or biology can't explain how the output does this because of course it doesn't know where it's going it just bounces around like a pinball in a process called a random walk will sooner or later pass through each part of the cell, but this is not the most efficient way to move because when the output finally reaches the Reaction Center it is by sheer charms if the exoton simply it jumps blindly and randomly between the chlorophyll molecules, it would take too long to reach the reaction center and would have lost its energy as waste heat, but it is not like that, something very different must be happening, the vital clue comes from recent experiments that shocked the world of science chemists fired lasers at plant cells to simulate capturing sunlight confirmed that the exoton was not bouncing along a random path through the cell this original understanding did not explain what we were observing in the laboratory so the mystery is realized so what is the explanation for what we are observing in the laboratory?

The solution is that plants obey the most famous law in all of quantum mechanics. The uncertainty principle says that you can never be sure that the exoton is in place. It behaves like a quantum wave that spreads through the entire cell, the output does not simply move from A to B in a strange but very real sense, but is directed in all directions at the same time spreading out like a wave so that it can explore all possible roots simultaneously, this hits The very heart of what is so strange about quantum mechanics, the exotonic wave doesn't just go from one place to another, it follows all the paths at the same time, that's what gives it something so incredible.

Foreign Efficiency If the exoton is testing all routes to the reaction center at once, it will surely find the fastest possible way to deliver its energy. It is difficult to express how incredible this discovery seems to physicists like me. Bio

logic

al cells are filled with the random movement of billions. of atoms and molecules that somehow the exitons maintain their beautiful shape. Quantum salary and we are transporting the energy that guarantees life on Earth, opened a completely new scientific path for me and I really enjoy the fact that I can fully understand what it is. happening there or in plants, you have to interact with scientists who have completely different approaches, like biologists and chemists, but we all have to come together to really understand what the relevance of this is, so for me this is one of the most exciting parts. deIn this field, real scientific experiments leave no room for doubt.

The strange hand of quantum mechanics has shaped the entire living world. It's no surprise that you find quantum tricks used in biological systems. The reason is that they are better. Quantum entanglement is typically seen in the tightest conditions. controlled conditions of the physics laboratory, but we now know that robins use it to navigate with extraordinary precision. Quantum vibrations mean our noses listen to chemicals that improve our perception of the world around us. The living cells of all animals depend on protons that disappear and reappear like ghosts. speed up the vital processes of life foreign s the big picture bright world where quantum waves capture the sun's energy in an instant sometimes people say ah, but physicists have been looking for this for decades well, biology has had millions of years the ultra-modern science of quantum mechanics is an ancient fact of life by the end of my journey.

I want to take these ideas to their logical conclusion, of course, as a scientist any speculation I have needs to be supported by careful experiments, so I want to invent a thought experiment that will help. To answer the most important biological question I can think of, does quantum physics play any role in the mechanism of evolution itself? In 1859, Charles Darwin surprised the world with his theory of evolution by natural selection. He went on to explain the differences between humans and other apes. 150 years later there is no doubt that Darwin's theory explains all living organisms on land and sea, but I would like to explore the latest extraordinary interpretation of his ideas.

Could there be a quantum theory of evolution outside of the snails I'm used to seeing in my back garden tend to have pretty boring shells so take a look at this beauty, the patterns on her shell match the lines of the stem perfectly , it's called a banded snail, sepia numbers and the pattern is not there by accident, come and have a Look at this, less adapted snails are more likely to be found here. This stone is called the anvil of the thrush. The thrush is the main predator of the snail. Catch a snail and break its shell against the stone to reach the snail.

Now what I can see. here is that there are not many banded snail shells, suggesting that its colors camouflage it very well, hiding it from the bird. Darwin's theory says that evolution depends on variation within a species. Snails with camouflage are more likely to survive and reproduce outside of the Next Generation. so that the species as a whole becomes better adapted, so that variation, the random differences between snails, is the driving force behind their evolution. Now all species evolve and adapt to their environment, but the question I would like to explore is whether quantum mechanics plays a role in this.

The only way to find out is through scientific experiments, so my adventures in quantum biology eventually lead me to home, to the University of Surrey, here in the Laboratories. I am planning a new analysis of the most famous molecule in science, deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, its double. The helix contains the genetic code of every living organism. It is a notable fact that Darwin himself had no idea what created variation in species. The structure of DNA was not discovered until 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson. The most famous feature of DNA is, of course. its beautiful double helix structure, but that's just a scaffolding, the real genetic secret lies between the four different colored molecules called bases, the color code on one side says blue red blue forms a gene that parents pass on to their children a gene is a bit like a puzzle fits together so one complete strand of the double helix forms a color pattern but the other strand always pairs up the same way a blue base always goes with yellow and green always goes with red because only those colors have the correct shape to fit together, what Crick and Watson realized was that this provides a mechanism for transmitting the genetic code.

When cells reproduce, the two strands of DNA separate and are ready to be copied, but red still combines with green and yellow with blue, so little by little the cell creates two new strands two perfect copies of the complete genetic code so far there is no genetic variation this new copy is identical to the original but here is the interesting part during the copying process something very important can happen sometimes errors appear they are called mutations let's take a look at these two bases here the two tips that hold them together are subatomic particles they are protons they are basically the pumps between the strands of DNA these protons can jump to the other side if the strands split when the protons have jumped, they are in the wrong position now this red base will no longer bond to a green base, it has to bond to a yellow base, returning to place this, we see that now this copy is no longer identical to the original because we have a yellow base here instead of a green one that we have brought a genetic mutation jumping protons would change the DNA of the snail could create a new gene to camouflage the shells the question It's how protons jump I think quantum fear can take over Now, for these mutations to occur, protons have to overcome an energy barrier and if you remember well what happened with the enzymes, you can probably guess what's coming. continuation.

Protons can behave as if the barriers do not exist, they pass directly through them, but does it have this ghostly effect? It really happens, my colleagues in biology are already looking for the first evidence of quantum mutations. They didn't even know about quantum mechanics, so when you tell them that you know that particles can be in two places at once, their cars say, "Well, not in my cells." they can not. Our experiment involves bacteria samples. The sample is prepared in normal water containing hydrogen nuclei or protons. When bacteria reproduce, we simply count mutations, but if our theory is correct, then we should be able to change the rate at which mutations occur.

Remember. how we test the quantum theory of smell what happens if I replace the proton with its big brother the deuteron this is the nucleus of a deuterium atom now crucially A deuteron weighs twice as much as a proton and this should influence how easy it is for the deuteron to quantum tunnel quantum mechanics is full of surprises protons tunnel easily deuterons are not much more likely than these heavier particles to bounce back, so the second bacteria sample is prepared in heavy water that is full of deuterons. Our theory says that you should get far fewer mutations and so far the results are extremely encouraging.

The preliminary experiments that we have done give us a clue that the mutation rate is really depressed and in deuterated water we found that it is lower, so my hunch is that we are right, but um. We will have to wait a while before we can be sure that the final proof will be in the future, even if we are right. Quantum tunneling is a rare form of mutation, but our results promise strong evidence for a new explanation of one of the most fundamental phenomena. life processes tea of ​​a new quantum mechanism for evolution itself is tremendously exciting, in fact, the story of quantum biology is just beginning, what the frog, the robin, the fruit fly and the tree have shown us is that real quantum effects are occurring in nature. all the time and if there is one thing we have learned from the history of quantum mechanics it is that we can never be sure where the next discoveries will take us.

Quantum biology is a revolution in science, but it's time to return to physics.