Quantum Biology: The Hidden Nature of Nature

Can the spooky world of quantum physics explain bird navigation, photosynthesis and even our delicate sense of smell? Clues are mounting that the rules governing the subatomic realm may play an unexpectedly pivotal role in the visible world. Join leading thinkers in the emerging field of quantum biology as they explore the hidden hand of quantum physics in everyday life and discuss how these insights may one day revolutionize thinking on everything from the energy crisis to quantum computers.

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Original Program Date: June 1, 2012
MODERATOR: John Hockenberry
PARTICIPANTS: Paul Davies, Seth Lloyd, Thorsten Ritz

John Hockenberry's introduction 00:00

Participant Introductions 06:28

How is there a convergence between biology and the quantum? 7:45

Are particles in two places at once or is this based just on observations? 12:43

Are biological states creating a unique quantum rules? 17:32

Quantum mechanics is so counterintuitive. 23:00

Can nature have a quantum sense? 27:29

The quantum migration of birds... With bird brains? 31:50

Electron spin and magnetic fields. 37:00

Cryptochrome releases particles with spin and the bird knows where to go. 40:28

How is bird migration an example for evolution? 49:13

photosynthesis and quantum phenomena. 55:00

Bacteria doing quantum search. 1:00:21

Is quantum tunneling the key to quantum biology? 1:06:56

What are the experiments that prove this? 1:12:28

When fields converge how do you determine causality? 1:19:49

We have no idea how life began. 1:24:59

Replication leads to variation which is the beginning of life? 1:31:05

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[asahearts]

"Clap if you are a biological entity."
Mark Zuckerberg: *Sweats nervously*

[gruppler]

The number of times I've heard "we don't know" and "partially understood" gives me hope for science.

[sam]

I just want to say that I absolutely love this. I'm both mind-blown, entertained and inspired. As a mere psych student I still feel like I understood a whole lot of it, and they even made some psych references. And the way they talked about children having an intuitive understanding of quantum stuff made me think of theory-theory and this quote: "It's not that children are little scientists — it's that scientists are big children."

[erickavanmarche]

I feel like you can pretty much mix any other subject with biology and it is intriguing. Because without biology how could we think about it....think about it

[ADHD]

I learnt so much on YouTube over the years it's like I did a whole college degree

[monat_son]

i feel lucky to be able to watch this at the comfort of my home.

[annettetozer]

I just started enjoying watching this with closed captioning but 20 minutes in, it stopped working. I hope this can be fixed so I can watch the whole segment. Absolutely loved what was mentioned already so far. Thank you all for putting this together!

[spccedbra]

What a way, it's amazing how the moderator handle it. Sensible, respectful and very sophisticated interruptions with a fantastic sense of humor.

[valerag]

The more I hear “I don’t know, ” and “I don’t have all the answers, ” from people, the more I trust what they do tell me.
We don’t know where we’ll end up, or whether we’re even asking the most helpful questions, but I know the path forward has to involve as many varied minds in the process as possible, like scientists from very different fields looking at how their disciplines converge and create outcomes together.

The video also reminds me that the most successful processes in life, biologically speaking, as in human organizational structures, are not found by pursuing one path dogmatically, but by experimenting down multiple paths until you find the one that gives you even the slightest advantage as an entire species. That slight advantage can make the difference between life and death, even if it’s only realized thousands of generations from now, but only if we keep our focus and minds open wide.

[ZenTradeGame]

I’m a simple man. I see Quantum, I click!

[MRboomchongo]

When you find a science panel with that kind of audio quality you know it's going to be good.

[argos]

Every time consciousness comes to the fore, "let's not go there". Then, everybody gets puzzled because no one is able to get anywhere. Fascinating.

[rosindabz]

2:30 Am time for sleep

YouTube: Quantum Biology

[polinasyzrankina]

"One person's noise may be another person's signal" ... that's a good one.

[brettblute]

I am very thankful for this presentation, I was afraid I was the only one that was pondering these ideas specifically concerning microbiology. Specifically the ability of bacterium changing their polarity quickly through chemical absorption of charged ions that are easily available through their outer cell wall causing that microbe to move, in a since, chemically. That would explain the speed of its movement as if turning on and off a light. In effect, just by changing of polarity of a biome would move it through time and space while leaving it's structure idle, at its point of origin, but alter the quality of a distant biome into the parent's original quality. In this accomplishing the quantum speeds. Said energy in itself could then be transferred into movement, pressure fluctuation to force fluid movement or constriction, as well as color change. We see this in octopus or the movement of photophilic plant cells. Great discussion.

[segfahlt]

This was a phenomenally moderated session. Serious kudos to John.

[iart]

Why is there even a question that biological process is a separate phenomenon. Quantum mechanics should be thought of as status quo in the creation process of anything. We have to shed our lego-style/rational thinking. How we define biology must change. Biology/chemistry/ physics all one entity.

[bmanfubmanfu]

Wow! This is mind boggling!
Imagine watching that conference live, so much of it would be missed, I love to be able to pause/rewind.

[SerendipityInTheSky]

I am SO grateful that someone else finally said “we assume natures goal is to be efficient but we don’t actually know that”