Tryptophan
All thanks to a vulgar molecule, the tryptophan. Discovery is a “paradigm change” and completely changes the separation we made from quantum systems and biological systems. It is a sign of the “vital and growing connection between quantum technology and living systems”.
It is not only in brains: it is in a lifetime. Thus suggests a new published this month in Science Advances.
Its author, Philip Kulian, explains that “this work connects the points between Great pillars of twentieth century physics – Thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics – for a major paradigm shift in the biological sciences, investigating the viability and implications of quantum information processing in moist material at room temperature, ”he says to.
And soon advances the importance of the discovery: “ physical and cosmologists They should look at these discoveries, especially in considering the origins of life on earth and other places of the habitable universe, evolving in conjunction with the electromagnetic field. ”
The study is a paradigm change. This is because, so far, it has always been considered that, because they are hot, chaotic and with fundamental components, such as cells, many large, biological systems could not host quantum signs.
But Kurian discovered last year a different quantum effect on protein polymers in aqueous solution, that survives these inhospitable conditions.
“Combined with these very innocuous premises, the remarkable experimental confirmation of Super Radiance of a single photon In an ubiquitous biological architecture in thermal equilibrium opens many new lines of research in quantum point of view, quantum information theory, condensed matter physics, cosmology and biophysics, ”he comments.
But all this only happens thanks to an amino acid, which becomes the key molecule for the existence of quantum signs in organisms: tryptophanpresent in several proteins and absorbs ultraviolet light and emit it again in a longer wavelength.
“The implications of Kurian’s discoveries are amazing,” said Professor Majed Chergui of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, who supported the 2024 experimental study.
“A quantum biology -In particular our observations of super-ray signatures from standard protein conceoscopy methods, guided by their theory-has the potential to open new perspectives for understanding the evolution of living systems in the light of photophysics, ”he comments.
“There are signatures in the interstellar means and in the interplanetary asteroids of similar quantum emitters, which can be precursors of the computational advantage of eukaryotic life“, Points Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary sciences and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona.
“These new performance comparisons will be of interest to the large community of researchers in open quantum systems and quantum technology,” said Professor Nicolò Ancu at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) of Zurich. “It’s really intriguing to see a vital and growing connection between quantum technology and living systems“.
