Around 2014, the latest hot news in quantum biology was the observation by the group led by Anirban Bandyopadhyay about detection of quantum vibration in microtubule scale - their lengths vary up to 50 micrometer. If this observation can be replicated, one can speak about a breakthrough in quantum consciousness. The findings reported in an earlier talk of Bandyopadhyay give support for the general TGD inspired view about topological quantum computation (TQC) and allow for a rather detailed model in the case of microtubules. The idea is that flux tubes form a 2-D coordinate grid consisting of parallel flux tubes in two different directions. Crossing points would be associated with tubulins and the conformational state of tubulin could define a bit coding whether the braid strands defining coordinate lines are braided or not (swap or not). In this manner any bit pattern at microtubule defines a particular TQC program. If also the conformations are quantum superposed, one would have "quantum-quantum computation". It however seems that conformation change is an irreversible chemical reaction so that this option is not feasible. The TGD inspired modification of the proposal in terms of flux tube coordinate grids making possible TQC architectures with tubulin dimers defining bits defining in turn TQC program looks rather natural. Coordinate grids can be fixed on the basis of the experimental findings and there are 8 of them.
Around 2014, the latest hot news in quantum biology was the observation by the group led by Anirban Bandyopadhyay about detection of quantum vibration in microtubule scale - their lengths vary up to 50 micrometer. If this observation can be replicated, one can speak about a breakthrough in quantum consciousness. The findings reported in an earlier talk of Bandyopadhyay give support for the general TGD inspired view about topological quantum computation (TQC) and allow for a rather detailed model in the case of microtubules. The idea is that flux tubes form a 2-D coordinate grid consisting of parallel flux tubes in two different directions. Crossing points would be associated with tubulins and the conformational state of tubulin could define a bit coding whether the braid strands defining coordinate lines are braided or not (swap or not). In this manner any bit pattern at microtubule defines a particular TQC program. If also the conformations are quantum superposed, one would have "quantum-quantum computation". It however seems that conformation change is an irreversible chemical reaction so that this option is not feasible. The TGD inspired modification of the proposal in terms of flux tube coordinate grids making possible TQC architectures with tubulin dimers defining bits defining in turn TQC program looks rather natural. Coordinate grids can be fixed on the basis of the experimental findings and there are 8 of them.
Recent experimental research with marine algae points towards quantum entanglement at ambient temperature, with correlations between essential biological units separated by distances as long as 20 Angströms. The associated decoherence times, due to environmental influences, are found to be of order 400 fs. This prompted some authors to connect such findings with the possibility of some kind of quantum computation taking place in these biological entities: within the decoherence time scales, the cell "quantum calculates" the optimal "path" along which energy and signal would be transported more efficiently. Prompted by these experimental results, in this talk I remind the audience of a related topic proposed several years ago in connection with the possible rôle of quantum mechanics and/or field theory on dissipation-free energy transfer in microtubules (MT), which constitute fundamental cell substructures. The basic assumption was to view the cell MT as quantum electrodynamical cavities, providing sufficient isolation in vivo to enable the formation of electric-dipole quantum coherent solitonic states across the tubulin dimer walls. Crucial to this, were argued to be the electromagnetic interactions of the dipole moments of the tubulin dimers with the dipole quanta in the ordered water interiors of the MT, that play the rôle of quantum coherent cavity modes. Quantum entanglement between tubulin dimers was argued to be possible, provided there exists sufficient isolation from other environmental cell effects. The model was based on certain ferroelectric aspects of MT. Subsequent experiments in vitro could not confirm ferroelectricity at room temperatures, however they provided experimental measurements of the induced electric dipole moments of the MT under the influence of external electric fields. Nevertheless, this does not demonstrate that in vivo MT are not ferroelectric materials. More refined experiments should be done. In the talk I review the model and the associated experimental tests so far and discuss future directions, especially in view of the algae photo-experiments.
For years I have been thinking about how quantum computation could be carried out in TGD Universe. There are considerable deviations from the standard view. Zero Energy Ontology (ZEO), weak form of NMP dictating the dynamics of state function reduction, negentropic entanglement (NE), and hierarchy of Planck constants define the basic differences between TGD based and standard quantum measurement theory. TGD suggests also the importance of topological quantum computation (TQC) like processes with braids represented as magnetic flux tubes/strings along them. The natural question that popped in my mind was how NMP and Zero Energy Ontology (ZEO) could affect the existing view about TQC. The outcome was a more precise view about TQC. The basic observation is that the phase transition to dark matter phase reduces dramatically the noise affecting quantum quits. This together with robustness of braiding as TQC program raises excellent hopes about TQC in TGD Universe. The restriction to negentropic space-like entanglement (NE) defined by a unitary matrix is something new but does not seem to have any fatal consequences as the study of Shor's algorithm shows.
Magnetic flux tubes play a key role in TGD inspired model of quantum biology. Could the networks of magnetic flux tubes containing dark particles with large \hbar in macroscopic quantum states and carrying beams of dark photons define analogs of electric circuits? This would be rather cheap technology since no metal would be needed for wires. Dark photon beams would propagate along the flux tubes representing the analogs of optical cables and make possible communications with maximal signal velocity. I have actually made much more radical proposal in TGD inspired quantum biology. According to this proposal, flux tube connections are dynamical and can be changed by reconnection of two magnetic flux tubes. The signal pathways A→ C and B→ D would be transformed to signal pathways to A→ D and B→ C by reconnection. Reconnection actually represents a basic stringy vertex. The contraction of magnetic flux tubes by a phase transition changing Planck constant could be fundamental in bio-catalysis since it would allow distant molecules connected by flux tubes to find each other in the molecular crowd. DNA as a topological quantum computer is the idea that I have been developing for 5 years or so. I have concentrated on the new physics realization of braids and devoted not much thought to how the quantum computer problems might run in this framework. I was surprised to realize how little I know about what happens in even ordinary computation. Instead of going immediately to Wikipedia I take the risk of publicly making myself fool and try to use my own brain.
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.
Abstract We examine the quantum coherence properties of tubulin heterodimers arranged into the protofilaments of cytoskeletal microtubules. In the physical model proposed by the authors, the microtubule interiors are treated as high-Q quantum electrodynamics (QED) cavities that can support decoherence-resistant entangled states under physiological conditions, with decoherence times of the order of O(10−6) O ( 10 - 6 ) s. We identify strong electric dipole interactions between tubulin dimers and ordered water dipole quanta within the microtuble interior as the mechanism responsible for the extended coherence times. Classical nonlinear (pseudospin) σ σ -models describing solitonic excitations are reinterpreted as emergent quantum-coherent—or possibly pointer—states, arising from incomplete collapse of dipole-aligned quantum states. These solitons mediate dissipation-free energy transfer along microtubule filaments. We discuss logic-gate-like behaviour facilitated by microtubule-associated proteins, and outline how such structures may enable scalable, ambient-temperature quantum computation, with the fundamental unit of information storage realized as a quDit encoded in the tubulin dipole state. We further describe a process akin to “decision-making” that emerges following an external stimulus, whereby optimal, energy-loss-free signal and information transport pathways are selected across the microtubular network. Finally, we propose experimental approaches—including Rabi-splitting spectroscopy and entangled surface plasmon probes—to validate the use of biomatter as a substrate for scalable quantum computation.
Prompted by recent experimental results in marine algae, indicating quantum entanglement at ambient temperature, with correlations between essential biological units separated by distances as long as 20 Angstroms and decoherence times, due to environmental influences, of order 400 fs, I review here a related topic proposed several years ago in connection with the possible rôle of quantum mechanics and/or field theory on dissipation-free energy transfer in (brain) microtubules (MT). The basic assumption was to view the cell MT as quantum electrodynamical cavities, providing sufficient isolation in vivo to enable the formation of electric-dipole quantum coherent solitonic states across the tubulin dimer walls. Crucial to this, were argued to be the electromagnetic interactions of the dipole moments of the tubulin dimers with the dipole quanta in the ordered water interiors of the MT, that play the rôle of quantum coherent cavity modes. Quantum entanglement between tubulin dimers was argued to be possible, provided there exists sufficient isolation from other environmental cell effects. Thus, decoherence times as long as 10 −7 −10 −6 s could characterise the MT systems. The model was based on certain ferroelectric aspects of MT. In the talk I revisit these decoherence time scales in light of the algae measurements and argue that, even if the environmental decoherence implies short time scales of order of a few hundreds of fs, this is a sufficient time for some kind of quantum computation to take place in (brain) MT, so that within these time scales the cell "quantum calculates" the optimal "path" along which energy and signal (information) are transported most efficiently along the MT.