Application of quantum principles to living cells requires a new approximation of the full quantum mechanical description of intracellular dynamics. We discuss what principal elements any such good approximation should contain. As one such element, the notion of "Catalytic force" Cf is introduced. Cf is the effect of the molecular target of catalysis on the catalytic microenvironment that adjusts the microenvironment towards a state that facilitates the catalytic act. This phenomenon is experimentally testable and has an intriguing implication for biological organization and evolution, as it amounts to "optimization without natural selection of replicators". Unlike the statistical-mechanical approaches to self-organization, the Cf principle does not encounter the problem of "tradeoff between stability and complexity" at the level of individual cell. Physically, the Cf is considered as a harmonic-like force of reaction, which keeps the state of the cell close to the ground state, defined here as a state where enzymatic acts work most efficiently. Ground state is subject to unitary evolution, and serves as a starting point in a general strategy of quantum description of intracellular processes, termed here "Euclidean approach". The next step of this strategy is transition from the description of ground state to that one of growing state, and we suggest how it can be accomplished using arguments from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Finally, given that the most reliable and informative observable of an individual cell is the sequence of its genome, we propose that the non-classical correlations between individual molecular events at the single cell level could be easiest to detect using high throughput DNA sequencing.
Application of quantum principles to living cells requires a new approximation of the full quantum mechanical description of intracellular dynamics. We discuss what principal elements any such good approximation should contain. As one such element, the notion of "Catalytic force" Cf is introduced. Cf is the effect of the molecular target of catalysis on the catalytic microenvironment that adjusts the microenvironment towards a state that facilitates the catalytic act. This phenomenon is experimentally testable and has an intriguing implication for biological organization and evolution, as it amounts to "optimization without natural selection of replicators". Unlike the statistical-mechanical approaches to self-organization, the Cf principle does not encounter the problem of "tradeoff between stability and complexity" at the level of individual cell. Physically, the Cf is considered as a harmonic-like force of reaction, which keeps the state of the cell close to the ground state, defined here as a state where enzymatic acts work most efficiently. Ground state is subject to unitary evolution, and serves as a starting point in a general strategy of quantum description of intracellular processes, termed here "Euclidean approach". The next step of this strategy is transition from the description of ground state to that one of growing state, and we suggest how it can be accomplished using arguments from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Finally, given that the most reliable and informative observable of an individual cell is the sequence of its genome, we propose that the non-classical correlations between individual molecular events at the single cell level could be easiest to detect using high throughput DNA sequencing.
The traditional understanding of chemical catalysis heavily relies on classical transition state theory and potential energy surface modification, treating reactions as stochastic processes driven by random thermal collisions. This paper introduces the Molecular Entanglement Catalysis Theory (MECT), a paradigm-shifting framework that transcends the classical energy-barrier model. MECT posits that high catalytic efficiency is achieved not merely through static energy reduction, but via the active alteration of reaction information transmission modality through quantum entanglement. By establishing non-local quantum correlations between the catalyst and the substrate, the system bypasses classical statistical limitations. We construct a comprehensive mathematical framework incorporating total system Hamiltonians, Lindblad master equations for open quantum systems, and quantum mutual information to track the evolution of the density matrix. The theory demonstrates that the quantum mutual information I(C:S) acts as an informational conduit that actively guides the reactant wavefunction toward the product state configuration, effectively lowering the quantum informational free energy change expressed as Delta_G_quantum = Delta_G_classical - k_B * T * I(C:S). This framework provides profound insights into biological enzymatic efficiency, such as allosteric regulation and ambient bond cleavage, and paves the way for designing next-generation synthetic catalysts engineered for quantum coherence and information-driven reaction control.
In 2021 I noted that in all information-based systems we understand, Cognition creates Code, which controls Chemical reactions. Known agents write software which controls hardware, and not the other way around. I proposed the same is true in all of biology. Though the textbook description of cause and effect in biology proposes the reverse, that Chemical reactions produce Code from which Cognition emerges, there are no examples in the literature demonstrating either step. A mathematical proof for the first step, cognition generating code, is based on Turing's halting problem. The second step, code controlling chemical reactions, is the role of the genetic code. Thus a central question in biology: What is the nature and source of cognition? In this paper I propose a relationship between biology and Quantum Mechanics (QM), hypothesizing that the same principle that enables an observer to collapse a wave function also grants biology its agency: the organism's ability to act on the world instead of merely being a passive recipient. Just as all living cells are cognitive (Shapiro 2021, 2007; McClintock 1984; Lyon 2015; Levin 2019; Pascal and Pross, 2022), I propose humans are quantum observers because we are made of cells and all cells are observers. This supports the century-old view that in QM, the observer does not merely record the event but plays a fundamental role in its outcome.The classical world is driven by laws, which are deductive; the quantum world is driven by choices, which are inductive. When the two are combined, they form the master feedback loop of perception and action for all biology. In this paper I apply basic definitions of induction, deduction and computation to known properties of QM to show that the organism altering itself (and its environment) is a whole shaping its parts. It is not merely parts comprising a whole. I propose that an observer collapsing the wave function is the physical mechanism for producing negentropy. The way forward in solving the information problem in biology is understanding the relationship between cognition and QM.
Abstract Quantum biology has emerged as a frontier discipline, revealing that phenomena such as coherence, entanglement, and tunneling are not merely theoretical curiosities but functional components of living systems. This volume, Quantum Biology under ICQER, presents a unified framework for understanding these phenomena through the lens of the ICQER (Informational Constraints, Quantum Events, and Emergent Realities) paradigm. We propose that biological systems are fundamentally networks of informational constraints that channel, filter, and stabilize quantum events, enabling their propagation from molecular scales to emergent organismal behaviors. The work systematically examines how these constraint networks govern key biological processes, including photosynthetic energy transfer, enzymatic catalysis, magnetoreception, and neural cognition. Furthermore, we explore the evolutionary implications of quantum-informed constraints, demonstrating that natural selection acts not only on classical phenotypes but on the very architectures that harness quantum effects. By integrating molecular quantum dynamics with complex systems theory, this volume establishes ICQER as a predictive and unifying model for quantum biology. It redefines life as a quantum-constrained informational system and provides a roadmap for future research, with far-reaching implications for synthetic biology, bio-inspired technologies, and the fundamental understanding of life's informational architecture.
Molecular biology explains function of molecules by their geometrical and electronical structures that are mainly determined by utilization of quantum effects in chemistry. However, further quantum effects are not thought to play any significant role in the essential processes of life. On the contrary, consideration of quantum circuits/protocols and organic molecules as software and hardware of living systems that are co-optimized during evolution, may be useful to overcome the difficulties raised by biochemical complexity and to understand the physics of life. In this sense, we review quantum information-theoretic approaches to the process of DNA replication and propose a new model in which 1) molecular recognition of a nucleobase is assumed to trigger an intrabase entanglement corresponding to a superposition of different tautomer forms and 2) pairing of complementary nucleobases is described by swapping intrabase entanglements with interbase entanglements. We examine possible biochemical realizations of quantum circuits/protocols to be used to obtain intrabase and interbase entanglements. We deal with the problem of cellular decoherence by using the theory of decoherence-free subspaces and subsystems. Lastly, we discuss feasibility of the computational or experimental verification of the model and future research directions.
The existence of living organisms in the mesoscopic realm may be quite nontrivial and actuallymay emerge from the interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity. On one side, quantumbiology investigates how quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition, entanglement,and tunnelling, contribute to biological processes. These quantum effects, once thought to beirrelevant in the “warm, wet, and noisy” environment of living organisms due to decoherence, havebeen found to play significant roles in various biological systems, from photosynthesis to enzymecatalysis. On the other side, gravitational forces have been implicated in the organization ofmicrotubules, which are essential for maintaining cellular structure and function. Recent studieshave demonstrated that gravitational forces can induce three-dimensional chromosomal conformational changes, which are associated with rapid transcriptional responses in human T cells. Sometheories propose that gravity might play a role in decoherence, such as in the Penrose-Hameroffmodel, which proposes that quantum coherence in microtubules could be the basis for consciousawareness and quantum computing-like information processing, with gravity playing a role in thecollapse of the quantum wave function. The model predictions that microtubules can support longrange coherent phenomena have been confirmed by experimental observations of superradiancefrom mega-networks of tryptophan UV-excited transition dipoles, particularly in microtubulearchitectures. Another experimental research highlights that microtubule network exhibits ahierarchy of three-fold resonant frequency patterns across biological scales – from tubulin proteinsto microtubules and neurons. This suggests a quantum-to-classical transition governed by scalefree dynamics, potentially underlying information processing in the brain. A very intriguing fact isthat at the most fundamental level of the origin of life, the standard genetic code, we can observethe scale-free computing that arises from arithmetic regularities of the nucleon numbers related tothe code’s numerous symmetries. Given that some of these symmetries probably originate fromdifferent evolutionary epochs, such scale-free computing may be a latent background mechanismof the organization of the genetic code and therefore relevant to natural computing.
We describe an approach to quantum computer inspired by the information processing at the molecular level in living cells. It is based on the separation of a small ensemble of qubits inside the living system (e.g., a bacterial cell), such that coherent quantum states of this ensemble remain practically unchanged for a long time. We use the notion of a quantum kernel to describe such an ensemble. Quantum kernel is not strictly connected with certain particles; it permanently exchanges atoms and molecules with the environment, which makes quantum kernel a virtual notion. There are many reasons to expect that the state of quantum kernel of a living system can be treated as the stationary state of some Hamiltonian. While the quantum kernel is responsible for the stability of dynamics at the time scale of cellular life, at the longer inter-generation time scale it can change, varying smoothly in the course of biological evolution. To the first level of approximation, quantum kernel can be described in the framework of qubit modification of Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model, in which the relaxation corresponds to the exchange of matter between quantum kernel and the rest of the cell and is represented as Lindblad super-operators.