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REVIEW article

Front. Quantum Sci. Technol.
Sec. Quantum Sensing and Metrology
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frqst.2024.1466906
This article is part of the Research Topic Quantum Biology View all 5 articles

Quantum phenomena in biological systems

Provisionally accepted
Pedro H. Alvarez Pedro H. Alvarez 1*Luca Gerhards Luca Gerhards 1Ilia A. Solov'yov Ilia A. Solov'yov 1,2,3Marcos C. de Oliveira Marcos C. de Oliveira 4
  • 1 University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • 2 The Neurosensory Research Center, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 3 Center for Nanoscale Dynamics (CENAD), Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • 4 Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics, Campinas State University, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Quantum biology is a modern field of research that aims to understand how quantum effects can affect the chemistry underlying various biological processes. This paper reviews several examples of biological processes where quantum effects might play a notable role. Initially, the photon capture mechanism present in vision is discussed, where the energy of the photon is used to cause conformational changes to chromophoric proteins. The second example elaborates the highly efficient energy transfer process present in photosynthesis and discusses, in particular, how the random quantum walk process may enhance the performance drastically. Subsequently, the vertebrate magnetoreception, and the possible associated role of the radical pair mechanism in the process is considered. The review concludes with the discussion of some speculative ideas of putative quantum effects arising in neural processes.

    Keywords: quantum biology, spin dynamics, Molecular Chemistry, Magnetoreception, quantum mechanics

    Received: 18 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alvarez, Gerhards, Solov'yov and de Oliveira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pedro H. Alvarez, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.