Activities in living cells are performed by protein conformational dynamics which in turn are governed by quantum mechanical van der Waals London forces in intra-protein “hydrophobic ” pockets. In assemblies of proteins with periodic lattice geometry such as cytoskeletal actin and microtubules (as well as ordered water on their surfaces), Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum coherent superposition and quantum computation with entanglement may occur as a collective effect of these forces due to metabolic coherent phonon pumping. Decoherence can be avoided through isolation/shielding by actin gelation, Debye layer screening and water/ion ordering and topological quantum error correction. As an example, quantum spin transfer through organic molecules is more efficient at higher temperatures than at absolute zero. The unitary oneness and ineffability of living systems may depend on mesoscopic/macroscopic quantum states in protoplasm.
Activities in living cells are performed by protein conformational dynamics which in turn are governed by quantum mechanical van der Waals London forces in intra-protein “hydrophobic ” pockets. In assemblies of proteins with periodic lattice geometry such as cytoskeletal actin and microtubules (as well as ordered water on their surfaces), Bose-Einstein condensation, quantum coherent superposition and quantum computation with entanglement may occur as a collective effect of these forces due to metabolic coherent phonon pumping. Decoherence can be avoided through isolation/shielding by actin gelation, Debye layer screening and water/ion ordering and topological quantum error correction. As an example, quantum spin transfer through organic molecules is more efficient at higher temperatures than at absolute zero. The unitary oneness and ineffability of living systems may depend on mesoscopic/macroscopic quantum states in protoplasm.
Dynamical activities within living eukaryotic cells are organized by microtubules, main structural components of the cytoskeleton and cylindrical polymers of the protein tubulin. Evidence and theoretical models suggest that states of tubulin may play the role of “bits ” in classical microtubule computational automata. The advent of quantum information devices, key roles played by quantum processes in protein dynamics, and coherent ordering in the cell cytoplasm further suggest that microtubules may function as quantum computational devices, and that mesoscopic and macroscopic quantum states are characteristic of living systems. In this paper new results from molecular dynamics simulation based on recently obtained atomic structure of tubulin are presented which provide support for classical and quantum modes of microtubule information processing. 1. Introduction: Cytoplasm
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.
Although experimental evidence suggests the influence of quantum effects in living organisms, one of the most critical problems in quantum biology is the explanation of how those effects that take place in a microscopic level can manifest in the macroscopic world of living beings. At present, quantum decoherence associated with the wave function collapse is one of the most accepted mechanisms explaining how the classical world of living beings emerges from the quantum world. Whatever the cause of wave function collapse, there exist biological systems where a biological function arises as a result of this collapse (e.g. birds navigation, plants photosynthesis, sense of smell, etc.), as well as the opposite examples (e.g. release of energy from ATP molecules at actomyosin muscle) where a biological function takes place in a quantum coherent environment. In this paper we report the modelling and simulation of quantum coherent superposition in cytoskeletal microtubules including decoherence, thus the effect of the collapse of the microtubule coherent state wave function. Our model is based on a new class of hybrid cellular automata (QvN), capable of performing as either a quantum cellular automata (QCA) or as a classical von Neumann automata (CA). These automata are able to simulate the transition or reduction from a quantum microscopic level with superposition of several quantum states, to a macroscopic level with a single stable state. Our results illustrate the significance of quantum biology explaining the emergence of some biological functions. We believe that in the future quantum biology will have a deep effect on the design of new devices, e.g. quantum hardware, in electrical engineering.
Microtubules,one of the primary components and function units in cytoskeleton system,are filled with water.Due to the interactions between the electronic dipole field of water molecules confined within microtubule and the quantized electromagnetic radiation field,the incoherent,thermal and disordered molecular movement excited the water molecules from ground state to excited state and transferred into the collective coherent radiation.Water is a kerr medium which contains non-linear effect.When propagating in it,the coherent state we concerned in this paper can evolve into quantum superposition states.
The background of this contribution is the ongoing extended debate over quantum effects in the biology since decades. Typical examples of the quantum biology are photosynthesis, enzymatic activities, bird navigation and especially the coherent movement of microtubules. The reason for all these effects is dominantly the quantum coherence of waves. The objective of this contribution is the quantum description of the instability dynamics of microtubules at their assembly and disassembly phases during the interphase. The corresponding theoretical investigations of this article confirm the existence of quantum coherence of microtubules. Experimental results assert such vibrations of microtubules by the observation of γ-waves in the human brain generated by bundles of microtubules. Tubulin subunits and the accessory proteins are of nano size; therefore, they are modeled as field quanta in the framework of non-relativistic quantum field theory. This approach describes the dynamics of these quantum particles and their interactions, by accentuation of their different performances as coherent or incoherent waves. The achieved results strongly depend from the preconditions: whether the fluctuating forces are turned on or turned off. With the inset of fluctuations, the quantum coherence is destroyed, and only incoherent particle solutions are obeyed. Without the impact of fluctuations wave solutions dominate. Another type of wave solution are coherent wave packets which are counter-running, where their superposition can extinct or enhance them. This kind of interfering coherent solutions is applied on the polymerization of protofilaments. The calculations of this contribution demonstrate that the quantum coherence can be only observed when fluctuations are excluded. The conclusion is that that dedicated biological processes must be able to suppress the destroying influences of the local environment. In contrary to technical-based experiments, where coherence is only obtained when the fluctuations are deliberately excluded (e.g. quantum computer). Therefore, the answer why the processes of quantum biology can generate quantum coherence at least in case of microtubules is actually not answered. Kinesins in combination with microtubules are fundamental for cellular functions and morphogenesis. Recent genetic experiments uncovered their role for tumor suppression and developmental patterning. However, these findings which open exciting new areas of kinesin research are not included in this contribution, because the description of the kinesin-microtubule system is to comprehensive for one article.
We discuss possible quantum mechanical aspects of MicroTubules (MT), based on recent developments in quantum physics. We focus on potential mechanisms for "energy-loss-free" transport along the microtubules, which could be considered as realizations of Fröhlich's ideas on the rôle of solitons for superconductivity and/or biological matter. In particular, by representing the MT arrangements as cavities, we present a novel scenario on the formation of macroscopic (or mesoscopic) quantum-coherent states, as a result of the (quantum-electromagnetic) interactions of the MT dimers with the surrounding molecules of the ordered water in the interior of the MT cylinders. Such states decohere due to dissipation through the walls of the MT. Transfer of energy without dissipation, due to such coherent modes, could occur only if the decoherence time is larger than the average time scale required for energy transfer across the cells. We present some generic order of magnitude estimates or the decoherence time in a typical model for MT dynamics. Our conclusion is that the quantum coherent states play a rôle in energy transfer if the dissipation through the walls of the MT cavities is fairly suppressed, corresponding to damping time scales Tr≥10-4-10-5 sec, for moderately large MT networks. We suggest specific experiments to test the above-conjectured quantum nature of the microtubular arrangements inside the cell. These experiments are similar in nature to those in atomic physics, used in the detection of the Rabi-Vacuum coupling between coherent cavity modes and atoms. Our conjecture is that a similar Rabi-Vacuum-splitting phenomenon occurs in the absorption (or emission) spectra of the MT dimers, which would constitute a manifestation of the dimer coupling with the coherent modes in the ordered-water environment (dipole quanta), which emerge due to "super-radiance".