Quantum physics in biology | Johnjoe McFadden | IAI Interviews

Johnjoe McFadden discusses how quantum mechanics principles manifest in the natural world.

00:00 What is quantum biology?
02:16 How revolutionary is it for the life sciences?
02:56 What is quantum/proto tunnelling in DNA?
04:59 How do quantum mechanics principles apply in quantum biology?
06:24 Does quantum biology better explain consciousness?
09:27 What is Occam's razor principle?
13:12 Why is simplicity a good guide?

Quantum mechanics has long influenced and unalterably changed the world of physics. Yet, biology has taken some time to catch-up. How might our exploration of the quantum influence our understanding of life, consciousness and the natural world?

#QuantumBiology #JohnjoeMcFadden #QuantumMechanics

Johnjoe McFadden is a scientist, professor and writer at the University of Surrey. He has written many popular science books including Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology and Quantum Evolution.

The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics. Subscribe today!

[yusufali]

ever since I came to know that a physicist's book "What Is Life" by Schrödinger lead Watson et. to the discovery of DNA structure, I had been looking forward for something like QUANTUM BIOLOGY.
This is a dream come true for me.
Dear iai,
Thank you!

[burgercide]

Penrose‘s theory does not require quantum effects to be spread over the entire brain. In his theory the effect is localized in neuron microtubules. This seems to be a very common misunderstanding.

[robertflynn]

Its knowing quantum physics of all sorts of liquid crystal objects. Very beautiful.

[gerardostheimer]

For the followers of Art and Ideas, file this one under art: Performance art. Chemistry and the "chemical bond" is very much entwined with QM. Having a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, having used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to solve a peptide structure (as elegant an application of QM as one can imagine), having done X-ray crystallography (another elegant application of QM), I can assure you, dear reader, that biochemists very much appreciate quantum mechanics and its limits. This gentleman's arguments remind me of the Ancient Alien Theorists. Something striking or impressive or poorly explained is so unusual that it must be Aliens, errrr, Quantum. I saw lectures on the quantum mechanics of photosynthesis 20 years ago. These things are well understood. The quantum mechanics / mechanics of hydrogen bonding (and as such DNA base pair recognition) is well understood. This guy is taking advantage of the fact that most people don't understand the basics of biochemistry and quantum mechanics to sell books. I suspect that the hard working scientists working at the productive interface of QM and biology cringe at outlandish claims of Dr. McFadden. I'd love to see Sabine Hossenfelder dismember this snake oil salesman.

[johnpayne]

Gilbert Ling proposed water had a special state at the interface with biomolecules from electric field theory. This “bio ice” state of water would cause ion desolvation, increasing the dielectric constant, amplifying the electric field strength and thus the importance of such interactions. Example: Tatsuo Iwazumi applied this concept in his electrostatic model of muscle contraction - elegant but now discarded in favor of a conformational ratchet of AF Huxley and others.
A revisit of Ling’s idea from quantum mechanics would be interesting …

[WestOfEarth]

Isn't the Principle of Least action a formalization of Occam's Razor?

[andybaldman]

Quantum biology is going to change everything. Revisit this quote in twenty years.

[mechannel]

Fascinating interview. Do wish the interviewer had asked Dr. McFadden about his thoughts on chi and acupuncture, and whether qi is the electric magnetic field he was talking about.

[Paulus_Brent]

Why should all particles across the entire brain have quantum properties to account for consciousness? And why on earth should the em field of the brain be equal to consciousness? So much confusion...

[MrKashes]

would that mean that every thing animals insects and organisms have electric field they would have consciousness *Panpsychism* ?

[garyjjanb]

'Consciousness is a physical phenomenon.' The explanations for the materialist worldview are so darn fuzzy. Is self-awareness then a magnetic field within a magnetic field? Quantum mechanics shows consciousness to be fundamental. The materialist paradigm is circular and has to rely on unverifiable magic like the Many Worlds interpretation.

[speedomars]

This guy is muddled. An EM field is a non quantum effect. Also, if the brain is producing and using an EM field how is it shielded from EM all around us in the atmosphere? Research has failed to show that EM around us affects us in any way. Plus, he is not exact in how he thinks protons in DNA are organized in a way that makes a sequenced code (the way amino acids do) or how specially the duality of particle/wave for photons produces the alleged 100% effect in photosynthesis.

[S.G.Wallner]

What I keep hearing is... "And Quantum Mechanics may explain this." I'm not convinced, especially because Quantum Biology isn't that new, it's had about a decade to make some significant discoveries, and it hasn't. This is just another way to keep the reductionist materialist fantasy of explaining consciousness and life with some abstract quantifiable theory and set of algorithms.

[MS-odje]

Flight came from the Wright brothers.
Genetics via Gregor Mendel was unrecognized despite his presentation to 40 scientists, publishing twice and holding a lifelong correspondence with a leading scientist.
Sir Arthur Evans would cancel your ability to be an academic as it was tantamount to not believing in science if one questioned that Linear A or B were anything but not Greek.

Post French Revolution denounced historical text as pure myth but had to face Schliemann.

The Urey-Miller experiment was missing something as an explanation as was brought to the fore non academically.
ADHD as an advantage in hunter gatherers also was suggested outside of academia.

While the concept of consciousness being electromagnetic is partially likely it is far from a true understanding of it.

The instrument is not the note
The orchestra is not the symphony
The wires are not the electricity
The brain is not the mind
The universe is not the math

I digress.

Do please continue to try.
However do not just think outside of the box. Appreciate that there is no box.
Yes men are great for consolidating ideas but run against their collective Dunning -Kruger, Pareto effects.

[merlepatterson]

Vaccine mandates are universal, along the lines of unquestionable kingship.

[relaxisasinaturequran]

The simplicity. Why and how.. !! Why ? (Theology) and how ? (Science).