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Quantum biology

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 10–18 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that a variety of organisms may harness some of the unique features of quantum mechanics to gain a biological advantage. These features go beyond trivial quantum effects and may include harnessing quantum coherence on physiologically important timescales. In this brief review we summarize the latest results for non-trivial quantum effects in photosynthetic light harvesting, avian magnetoreception and several other candidates for functional quantum biology. We present both the evidence for and arguments against there being a functional role for quantum coherence in these systems.

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Figure 1: A quantum machine for efficient light-energy harvesting.
Figure 2: The avian quantum compass.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Pisliakov, L. Valkunas, E. Gauger, P. Nation, S. Darroch, I. Mahboob, A. Y. Smirnov, A. Ishizaki, K. Jacobs and S. De Liberato for helpful discussions and feedback. Y-C.C. thanks the National Science Council, Taiwan (Grant No. NSC 100-2113-M-002-004-MY2), the National Taiwan University (Grant No. 10R80912-5) and the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering (Subproject: 10R80914-1) for financial support. Y-N.C. thanks the National Science Council, Taiwan (Grant No. NSC 101-2628-M-006-003-MY3) for financial support. F.N. acknowledges partial support from the ARO, JSPS-RFBR contract No. 12-02-92100, MEXT Kakenhi on Quantum Cybernetics and the JSPS-FIRST Program. C-M.L thanks the National Science Council, Taiwan (No. NSC 101-2112-M-006-016-MY3, No. NSC 101-2738-M-006-005 and No. NSC 103-2911-I-006 -301) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

    Neill Lambert & Franco Nori

  2. Department of Physics and National Center for Theoretical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan

    Yueh-Nan Chen & Guang-Yin Chen

  3. Department of Chemistry and Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan

    Yuan-Chung Cheng

  4. Department of Engineering Science and Supercomputing Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan

    Che-Ming Li

  5. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA

    Franco Nori

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Lambert, N., Chen, YN., Cheng, YC. et al. Quantum biology. Nature Phys 9, 10–18 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2474

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