2025/10/28
Long-range Collective Quantum Coherence in Tryptophan Mega-Networks of Biological Architectures
"An empirical-based study has found significant photophysical and photochemical effects in mega-networks of tryptophan in biological architectures resulting from quantum optical enhancement during collective coherence, long-range resonance and synchronization. Contrary to what used to be the common sentiment among experts that the biological system was too wet, noisy, and warm for non-trivial quantum effects like collective coherence, the observed superradiance and long-range interactivity even in the ambient thermal environment of the cell disprove such naïve perspectives (naïve because they were not taking into full account the unique structural / geometric organizational properties of cellular proteins and were based on very simplistic purviews of cellular organization), and is now one of many such findings that demonstrate the robustness of non-trivial quantum effects in the biological system. The findings have wide-ranging implications and are important because collective quantum optical effects in tryptophan mega-networks may underlie key cellular orchestration and signaling processes, like potentially ultrafast information transfer in neuronal axons, which have highly ordered core microtubule filamentary bundles." Full discussion by William Brown. Also news articles at EurekaAlert and PopularMechanics.
See relevant research at:
Babcock NS, Montes-Cabrera G, Oberhofer KE, Chergui M, Celardo GL, Kurian P. [2024] "Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures". J Phys Chem B. 128(17):4035-4046. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c07936. PMID: 38641327; PMCID: PMC11075083.
Philip Kurian [2025]. "Computational capacity of life in relation to the universe".Sci. Adv.11,eadt4623(2025).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adt4623
Labels: #Biology, #Computation
