Quantum aspects of life / editors, Derek Abbott, Paul C.W. Davies, Arun K. Pati ; foreword by Roger Penrose.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Abbott, Derek, 1960-

Davies, P. C. W.

Pati, Arun K.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum biochemistry.

Life--Origin.

Life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (468 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Imperial College Press ; Hackensack, NJ ; London : Distributed by World Scientific, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book presents the hotly debated question of whether quantum mechanics plays a non-trivial role in biology. In a timely way, it sets out a distinct quantum biology agenda. The burgeoning fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum technology, and quantum information processing are now strongly converging. The acronym BINS, for Bio-Info-Nano-Systems, has been coined to describe the synergetic interface of these several disciplines. The living cell is an information replicating and processing system that is replete with naturally-evolved nanomachines, which at some level require a quant

Contents:

Preface; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Contents; Part 1: Emergence and Complexity; 1. A Quantum Origin of Life? Paul C. W. Davies; 1.1. Chemistry and Information; 1.2. Q-life; 1.3. The Problemof Decoherence; 1.4. Life as the "Solution" of a Quantum Search Algorithm; 1.5. Quantum Choreography; Acknowledgements; References; 2. Quantum Mechanics and Emergence Seth Lloyd; 2.1. Bits; 2.2. Coin Flips; 2.3. The Computational Universe; 2.4. Generating Complexity; 2.5. A Human Perspective; 2.6. A QuantumPerspective; References; Part 2: Quantum Mechanisms in Biology

3. Quantum Coherence and the Search for the First Replicator Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden3.1. When did Life Start?; 3.2. Where did Life Start?; 3.3. Where did the Precursors Come From?; 3.4. What was the Nature of the First Self-replicator?; 3.5. The RNAWorld Hypothesis; 3.6. A Quantum Mechanical Origin of Life; 3.6.1. The dynamic combinatorial library; 3.6.2. The two-potential model; 3.6.3. Decoherence; 3.6.4. Replication as measurement; 3.6.5. Avoiding decoherence; 3.7. Summary; References

4. Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics in Photosynthesis Alexandra Olaya Castro, Francesca Fassioli Olsen, Chiu Fan Lee, and Neil F. Johnson4.1. Introduction; 4.2. A Coherent Photosynthetic Unit (CPSU); 4.3. Toy Model: Interacting Qubits with a Spin-star Configuration; 4.4. A More Detailed Model: Photosynthetic Unit of Purple Bacteria; 4.5. Experimental Considerations; 4.6. Outlook; References; 5. Modelling Quantum Decoherence in Biomolecules Jacques Bothma, Joel Gilmore, and Ross H. McKenzie; 5.1. Introduction; 5.2. Time and Energy Scales; 5.3. Models for Quantum Baths and Decoherence

5.3.1. The spin-bosonmodel5.3.1.1. Independent boson model; 5.3.2. Caldeira-Leggett Hamiltonian; 5.3.3. The spectral density; 5.4. The Spectral Density for the Different Continuum Models of the Environment; 5.5. Obtaining the Spectral Density from Experimental Data; 5.6. Analytical Solution for the Time Evolution of the Density Matrix; 5.7. Nuclear Quantum Tunnelling in Enzymes and the Crossover Temperature; 5.8. Summary; References; Part 3: The Biological Evidence; 6. Molecular Evolution: A Role for Quantum Mechanics in the Dynamics of Molecular Machines that Read and Write DNA Anita Goel

6.1. Introduction6.2. Background; 6.3. Approach; 6.3.1. The information processing power of a molecularmotor; 6.3.2. Estimation of decoherence times of the motor-DNA complex; 6.3.3. Implications and discussion; References; 7. Memory Depends on the Cytoskeleton, but is it Quantum? Andreas Mershin and Dimitri V. Nanopoulos; 7.1. Introduction; 7.2. Motivation behind Connecting Quantum Physics to the Brain; 7.3. Three Scales of Testing for Quantum Phenomena in Consciousness; 7.4. Testing the QCI at the 10 nm-10 μm Scale

7.5. Testing for Quantum Effects in Biological Matter Amplified from the 0.1 nm to the 10 nm Scale and Beyond

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781848162556

1848162553

OCLC:

696629755