“New Era for Quantum Biology” Is Upon Us
Daria Solovieva
Daria Solovieva
Quote:It has been an exciting week for quantum biology enthusiasts, with two separate studies suggesting new ways to leverage quantum principles in life sciences applications.
Researchers from the Quantum Nanophysics Group at the University of Vienna found a “quantum interference in molecules of gramicidin, a natural antibiotic made up of 15 amino acids,” potentially opening a door to a “new era for quantum biology,” according to MIT Technology Review.
A separate paper published in Nature this week also suggested that “the theory of quantum open systems can successfully push forward our theoretical understanding of complex biological systems working close to the quantum/classical boundary.”
This research is the latest in scientific breakthroughs enabling us to better understand and leverage “quantum properties of biomolecules” and “set the scene for experiments that exploit the quantum nature of enzymes, DNA, and perhaps one day simple life forms such as viruses.”
The concept of quantum biology, or the application of quantum principles better known in math and computing to living organisms, has been around since the 1930s.
PitchBook and Crunchbase databases show that most of the private funding is flowing into quantum physics technologies, the hot new frontier, but the earliest applications of quantum principles was in fact in biology.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell