The concepts submitted by quantum mechanics fascinated the scientific community during the first half of the 20(th) century. The second half was dominated by biology, culminating in the sequencing of the human genome and the study of stem cells. Although the anticipated revolution of cellular therapies in medicine is in its infancy, the conceptual debate over stem cell plasticity shares similarities with evolution of the quantum theory. Are there notions and modes of thinking that stem cell biologists should adopt from the evolution in the interpretation of the laws of physics?
The concepts submitted by quantum mechanics fascinated the scientific community during the first half of the 20(th) century. The second half was dominated by biology, culminating in the sequencing of the human genome and the study of stem cells. Although the anticipated revolution of cellular therapies in medicine is in its infancy, the conceptual debate over stem cell plasticity shares similarities with evolution of the quantum theory. Are there notions and modes of thinking that stem cell biologists should adopt from the evolution in the interpretation of the laws of physics?
Probably no theory in the history of science has produced such a profound cultural and scientific revolution as is determined by quantum mechanics. Founded around 1920 by illustrious physicists, all Nobel Prize winners, it has completely subverted the conception of matter and the universe. The theory that all matter is made up of atoms has already been formulated by Greek philosophers, starting with Democritus. Quantum mechanics provided a description based on a new conception of the elementary structure of atoms, and formulated the fundamental laws to which atoms obey. Quantum theory has obtained the unanimous and shared consent of the scientific world, although some aspects have not been definitively confirmed. Strengthened by the universal acceptance of his theories, quantum mechanics claims its intellectual primacy over all the other sciences, and the scientific world seems to grant it, so much so as to archive all the knowledge and achievements gathered in its thousand-year history. From the epistemological point of view all established theories are worthy of consideration and must be shared and accepted until proven groundless. Dating, quantum mechanics still enjoys the consent of many scientists, but this does not mean that it can claim to be the repository of all truth, based on an unacceptable and anti-scientific syllogism for which: A) all organic and inorganic matter is formed by atoms and molecules; B) quantum mechanics has founded theories and formulas to which atoms and molecules obey; C) accordingly quantum mechanics can control all universal matter. But the presumption of its predominance goes further than willing to dominate living matter. In this article we are going to examine with a sharp criticism, the aberrant and anti-scientific claim of this discipline to dominate not only science but also universal matter. We propose a more moderate and considered vision of the observable natural phenomena and consider them events in continuous evolution, and to adapt our hypotheses and theories with an equal evolutionary approach.
Abstract Following the path by which humanity learned quantum mechanics can lead to an improved understanding of the theory and the origins of its perceived limitations. Our goal is to retrace the development by investigating primary sources, including original published papers and letters, with attention to their timing and influence. Quantum mechanics began in 1900 with the introduction of Planck’s constant, which lead to the “old” quantum theory and Bohr’s model of the atom. With the introduction of matter waves in 1924, a second more intense period began. By 1928 the complete fundamental structure of quantum mechanics was established with the introduction of the Schrödinger equation, the proof of its equivalence to Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics, and the introduction of the relativistic Dirac equation. The theory retains the same essential form today, fueling the technological revolution that began in the last century. We culminate with an introduction to quantum information and computing. This completely new physical scientific paradigm was developed largely in Germany during a period of enormous social, economic, and political upheaval—in a hostile intellectual environment—that parallels the overturning of classical physics. It is striking that all the problems debated today were immediately recognized by the founders of the theory and instructive to see how they dealt with the various issues. We emphasize the centrality of the often neglected second quantization form of the theory for questions of interpretation and give a detailed examination of von Neumann’s widely misunderstood hidden variable theorem.
The twentieth century has seen two major revolutions in our theories of physics concerning nature, and these have made us change many of our concepts about the terms in which nature can be described. The new theories born in these revolutions are the theory of relativity and of quantum mechanics. The biological sciences had their revolutions in the nineteenth century, and while remarkable progress has been made since, nothing comparable to that upheaval has occurred in this century. Of the two massive changes in the concepts of the physical sciences, we can discuss but one here. [excerpt]
Quantum Medicine is the medical application of the new notions about the nature of life, which are given by Physics of the Alive. In accordance with these notions any free functioning alive object sites on the fourth step of the nature quantum ladder, i. e. one is the whole macroscopic quantum mechanics entity. In the scope of this approach "the healthy organism" is associated with the ground state of the alive in its potential "well" and disease as a metastable state. The standard resonance discharge of metastable state to the ground one, which is usually realized on three previous steps of quantum ladder (nuclear, atomic and molecular) in case of the alive, conforms to the treatment with the technologies of the microwave resonance therapy (MRT).
The discovery of quantum mechanics immediately transformed both physics and chemistry, and questions were soon asked about its implications for bio- logy. The first era of quantum biology focused on the structure and stability of biological entities like molecules. A second era began in the 1960s, with lasers allowing experiments on the very short time scales relevant to atomic and mo- lecular motions. Today, we have novel nanoprobes of real living cells, and evi- dence for biological phenomena that may involve highly non-trivial quantum effects such as long-range coherence and entanglement.
This chapter first discusses statistical techniques and concepts — including probability, probability distribution, average and expectation value, and uncertainty — that are relevant to quantum mechanics. The physical interpretation of probability in quantum mechanics is then discussed. It is argued that by adopting the statistical interpretation, one can think clearly about quantum mechanics without committing to any of the various physical interpretations, and without tackling the conceptual hurdles that they present. The history and substance of interpretational issues in quantum mechanics is then briefly discussed, the point being to introduce these profound, unresolved questions without taking sides in ongoing scientific debates. The chapter closes with a personal reflection on Albert Einstein, the most revered and fascinating figure in physics, and the one most famously at odds with the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics.