A Physical Biology, the Electron Neutrino Mass, and the role of Quantum Mechanics in

A Physical Biology, the Electron Neutrino Mass, and the role of Quantum Mechanics in Nature

Maurice Goodman

In science we need to remove physics and earth science from the fundamental natural sciences and treat Biology as a fundamental natural (physical) science. Attempts to keep Biology autonomous because it is holistic, from the physical sciences, are just disguised anthropocentrism. Physical sciences have holistic features also. The autonomy of Biology is at odds with a holistic, integrated science and is preventing progress in science. For example, every cell needs a ‘global’ communication system to keep order and stability with rapid information transfer across cellular scales. We have yet to figure out how this is achieved. Over the last 30 years, we have understood that quantum mechanics is about information, mostly. However, we do not have a clear understanding of the physical significance of quantum mechanics in nature. Also, the view that quantum mechanics is restricted to the atomic and molecular scale is mistaken and a direct result of the mass of the electron being so big. In 1988 the mass of the electron neutrino was predicted to lie between 0.5 and 0.05 eV/c2 and to have a key role in Biology. This would allow quantum mechanical processes on a cellular and intercellular scale and provide a possible basis for a ‘global’ information system in the cell and an understanding of the information role of quantum mechanics in nature. Recent non-results, on the electron neutrino mass, from the KATRIN experiment are pushing the upper limit of the electron neutrino mass to less than 0.5 eV/c2 making the prediction of 30 years ago more likely.

All the sciences have reductionist and holistic features. Biology is no exception and is a physical science that is not autonomous from the rest. Quantum mechanics is not restricted to the atomic and molecular scales. It has a crucial role in all structure at all scales through quantum communication and information transfer which creates stability and prevents the structure from returning to equilibrium and ending in a chaotic break up. Quantum mechanics is mostly information with an ever-smaller (never zero) physical part associated with the relevant fundamental particle that conveys information. The larger the self-organising system is the smaller the information carrying physical part becomes. It is the uncertainty in position of the fundamental particle that determines the size of the self- organising system. Just as the quark is the messenger in the nucleon and the electron is the messenger in the atom, the e-neutrino is the information transfer mechanism in the cell that is vital to cell stability. This gives a glimpse of the significance of quantum mechanics and what it has been trying to tell us about nature since the beginning of the 20th century. Namely, all information transfer is quantum mechanical and the physical part of communication, in any self- organised system, is the associated fundamental particle and how it interacts with its associated system. After 30 years the mass of the electron neutrino is finally in the range predicted initially in 1988, implicating it in an information transfer role in Biology.