Imagine using your cell phone to monitor the activity of your own cells to treat injuries and diseases. It sounds like something from the imagination of an overly optimistic science fiction writer. But this may one day be a possibility thanks to the emerging field of quantum biology.
Over the past decades, scientists have made incredible progress in understanding and manipulating biological systems on increasingly smaller scales, from protein folding to genetic engineering. And yet the extent to which quantum effects influence living systems remains poorly understood.
Quantum effects are phenomena that occur between atoms and molecules and cannot be explained by classical physics. It has been known for more than a century that the rules of classical mechanics, like Newton’s laws of motion, break down on the atomic scale. Instead, small objects behave according to a different set of laws known as quantum mechanics.
To humans, who can only perceive the macroscopic world, or what is visible to the naked eye, quantum mechanics can seem counterintuitive and somewhat magical. Things you might not expect happen in the quantum world, such as electrons “tunneling” through tiny energy barriers and emerging on the other side unscathed, or being in two different places at the same time in a phenomenon called superposition.
I was trained as a quantum engineer. Research in quantum mechanics is generally focused on technology. Somewhat surprisingly, however, there is mounting evidence that nature – an engineer with billions of years of experience – has learned how quantum mechanics can function optimally. If this is indeed true, it means that our understanding of biology is radically incomplete. It also means that we may be able to control physiological processes by exploiting the quantum properties of biological matter.
Quantumness in biology is probably real
Researchers can manipulate quantum phenomena to build better technology. In fact, you already live in a quantum-powered world: from laser pointers to GPS, magnetic resonance imaging and the transistors in your computer – all these technologies rely on quantum effects.
In general, quantum effects manifest themselves only on very small length and mass scales, or when the temperature approaches absolute zero. This is because quantum objects such as atoms and molecules lose their ‘quantumness’ when they interact uncontrollably with each other and their environment. In other words, a macroscopic collection of quantum objects is better described by the laws of classical mechanics. Everything that starts quantum dies classically. For example, an electron can be manipulated to be in two places at once, but after a short time will end up in only one place – exactly what would be classically expected.
Thus, in a complex, noisy biological system, most quantum effects are expected to dissipate quickly, washed away in what the physicist Erwin Schrödinger called the “warm, wet environment of the cell.” For most physicists, the fact that the living world functions at high temperatures and in complex environments implies that biology can be adequately and completely described by classical physics: no crazy barrier crossing, no presence in multiple locations at once.
Chemists, however, have long begged to differ. Research into fundamental chemical reactions at room temperature shows unequivocally that processes taking place in biomolecules such as proteins and genetic material are the result of quantum effects. Importantly, such nanoscopic, short-lived quantum effects are consistent with driving some macroscopic physiological processes that biologists have measured in living cells and organisms. Research shows that quantum effects influence biological functions, including regulating enzyme activity, sensing magnetic fields, cell metabolism and electron transport in biomolecules.
How to study quantum biology
The tantalizing possibility that subtle quantum effects could influence biological processes presents both an exciting frontier and a challenge for scientists. Studying quantum mechanical effects in biology requires instruments that can measure the short time scales, small length scales, and subtle differences in quantum states that give rise to physiological changes – all integrated into a traditional wet laboratory environment.
In my work I build instruments to study and control the quantum properties of small things such as electrons. Just as electrons have mass and charge, they also have a quantum property called spin. Spin defines how the electrons interact with a magnetic field, the same way charge defines how electrons interact with an electric field. The quantum experiments I have built since graduating, and now in my own laboratory, aim to apply tailor-made magnetic fields to change the spins of certain electrons.
Research has shown that many physiological processes are affected by weak magnetic fields. These processes include the development and maturation of stem cells, the rate of cell proliferation, the repair of genetic material, and countless others. These physiological responses to magnetic fields correspond to chemical reactions that depend on the spin of certain electrons in molecules. Thus, applying a weak magnetic field to alter electron spins can effectively control the end products of a chemical reaction, with important physiological consequences.
Currently, a lack of understanding of how such processes work at the nanoscale prevents researchers from determining exactly which strength and frequency of magnetic fields trigger specific chemical reactions in cells. Current mobile phone, wearable and miniaturization technologies are already sufficient to produce tailor-made, weak magnetic fields that alter physiology, for better or worse. The missing piece of the puzzle, then, is a “deterministic codebook” on how to map quantum causes to physiological outcomes.
In the future, refining nature’s quantum properties could allow researchers to develop therapeutic devices that are non-invasive, remotely controlled and accessible with a mobile phone. Electromagnetic treatments could potentially be used to prevent and treat diseases such as brain tumors, as well as in biomanufacturing, such as increasing production of lab-grown meat.
A completely new way of doing science
Quantum biology is one of the most interdisciplinary fields ever to emerge. How do you build a community and train scientists to work in this field?
Since the pandemic, my laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Center at the University of Surrey have organized Big Quantum Biology meetings to provide an informal weekly forum for researchers to meet and share their expertise sharing in areas such as mainstream quantum physics, biophysics, medicine, chemistry and biology.
Research with potentially transformative implications for biology, medicine and the natural sciences will require working within an equally transformative model of collaboration. By working in one unified laboratory, scientists from disciplines that take very different approaches to research could conduct experiments that address the breadth of quantum biology, from quantum to molecular, cellular and organismal.
The existence of quantum biology as a discipline implies that the traditional understanding of life processes is incomplete. Further research will lead to new insights into the age-old question of what life is, how it can be controlled and how you can learn together with nature to build better quantum technologies.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Do you like this article? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
It was written by: Clarice D. Aiello, University of California, Los Angeles.
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Clarice D. Aiello receives funding from NSF, ONR, IDOR Foundation, Faggin Foundation, Templeton Foundation.