Scientists Just Discovered Quantum Signals Inside Life Itself

[erronis]

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-just-discovered-quantum-signals-inside-life-itself/

Biological systems, once thought too chaotic for quantum effects, may be quietly leveraging quantum mechanics to process information faster than anything man-made.

New research suggests this isn’t just happening in brains, but across all life, including bacteria and plants.

. . .

Using principles of quantum mechanics and recent QBL findings showing quantum optical properties in cytoskeletal filaments, Kurian has proposed a radically updated upper limit on the total information-processing capacity of carbon-based life throughout Earth’s history. His findings, published in Science Advances, also suggest a possible link between this biological limit and the computational bounds of all matter in the observable universe.

“This work connects the dots among the great pillars of twentieth-century physics – thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics—for a major paradigm shift across the biological sciences, investigating the feasibility and implications of quantum information processing in wetware at ambient temperatures,” said Kurian. “Physicists and cosmologists should wrestle with these findings, especially as they consider the origins of life on Earth and elsewhere in the habitable universe, evolving in concert with the electromagnetic field.”

. . .

The standard model for biochemical signaling involves ions moving across cells or membranes, generating spikes in an electrochemical process that takes a few milliseconds for each signal. But neuroscience and other biological researchers have only recently become aware that this isn’t the whole story. Superradiance in these cytoskeletal filaments happens in about a picosecond – a millionth of a microsecond. Their tryptophan networks could be functioning as quantum fiber optics that allow eukaryotic cells to process information billions of times faster than chemical processes alone would allow.

“The implications of Kurian’s insights are staggering,” said Professor Majed Chergui of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste (Italy), who supported the 2024 experimental study. “Quantum biology – in particular our observations of superradiant signatures from standard protein spectroscopy methods, guided by his theory—has the potential to open new vistas for understanding the evolution of living systems, in light of photophysics.”

. . .

Reference: “Computational capacity of life in relation to the universe” by Philip Kurian, 28 March 2025, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt4623

[Dave Bowman]

1. That's fascinating. Thanks.

[Jim__]

2. Interesting. Penrose and Hameroff's Orch OR theory of consciousness posit that it may arise from quantum processes ...

Penrose and Hameroff's Orch OR theory of consciousness posit that it may arise from quantum processes in the microtubules of the neurons.

From wikipedia:

Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) is a theory postulating that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons (rather than being a product of neural connections). The mechanism is held to be a quantum process called objective reduction that is orchestrated by cellular structures called microtubules. It is proposed that the theory may answer the hard problem of consciousness and provide a mechanism for free will.[1] The hypothesis was first put forward in the early 1990s by Nobel laureate for physics Roger Penrose, and anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff. The hypothesis combines approaches from molecular biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, philosophy, quantum information theory, and quantum gravity.[2][3]

While some other theories assert that consciousness emerges as the complexity of the computations performed by cerebral neurons increases,[4][5] Orch OR posits that consciousness is based on non-computable quantum processing performed by qubits formed collectively on cellular microtubules, a process significantly amplified in the neurons. The qubits are based on oscillating dipoles forming superposed resonance rings in helical pathways throughout lattices of microtubules. The oscillations are either electric, due to charge separation from London forces, or magnetic, due to electron spin—and possibly also due to nuclear spins (that can remain isolated for longer periods) that occur in gigahertz, megahertz and kilohertz frequency ranges.[2][6] Orchestration refers to the hypothetical process by which connective proteins, such as microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), influence or orchestrate qubit state reduction by modifying the spacetime-separation of their superimposed states.[7] The latter is based on Penrose's objective-collapse theory for interpreting quantum mechanics, which postulates the existence of an objective threshold governing the collapse of quantum states, related to the difference of the spacetime curvature of these states in the universe's fine-scale structure.[8]

...

[erronis]

3. I immediately thought of Penrose when I read this article.

His brain obviously works at these amazing speeds. Still astounds - much like Richard Feynman, or perhaps Leonardo a Vinci.