Quantum Entanglement and Photosynthesis

medcalf writes "Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley have experimentally shown that plants use quantum entanglement in photosynthesis. Researcher Mohan Sarovar said, 'The lessons we’re learning about the quantum aspects of light harvesting in natural systems can be applied to the design of artificial photosynthetic systems that are even better. The organic structures in light harvesting complexes and their synthetic mimics could also serve as useful components of quantum computers or other quantum-enhanced devices, such as wires for the transfer of information.' According to the article, 'What may prove to be this study's most significant revelation is that contrary to the popular scientific notion that entanglement is a fragile and exotic property, difficult to engineer and maintain, the Berkeley researchers have demonstrated that entanglement can exist and persist in the chaotic chemical complexity of a biological system.'"

No details but interesting

[mangu]

TFA is very sparse on details, but has interesting implications.

The difficulty in achieving entanglement comes from the system being perturbed at random from thermal vibrations. It's not clear in the articlehow this is achieved in photosynthesis, but if quantum entanglement can be preserved at ambient temperatures this could have awesome implications for quantum computers.

Not needing cryogenic conditions would be a huge step towards a desktop quantum computer.

Re:Biodiversity Is Priceless

[rickb928]

"Not enough coping mechanisms to keep it fit to survive in the world we've made, but many mechanisms that go down with it."

We've made?

We made water? Oxygen? Carbon? We made the Earth, or the Sun? We 'made' amino acids? DNA?

If we you mean humans, we've 'made' precious little. We've changed systems and processes to some extent, but 'made'?

Once again, blame the humans, they've made a wreck of everything. Pathetic.

I'm a meat-eater, but. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

Animals have brains, right?

If quantum entanglement doesn't turn out to be a vital component in neurological science, then I'll be a fish on a loaf.

-FL

Hameroff/Penrose model of quantum consciousness

[Dr_Banzai]

This finding seems to give support to the Orch-OR (orchestrated objective reduction) theory of quantum consciousness proposed by Stuart Hameroff [quantumconsciousness.org] and Roger Penrose. One of the main objections to the theory is that quantum coherence could not be sustained in the warm biological environment for sufficient duration. If quantum entaglement is a normal feature of photosynthesis, it's less of a stretch to believe that quantum coherence could be one of the mechanisms to give rise to consciousness in higher lifeforms.

Re:No details but interesting

[jmizrahi]

The difficulty in achieving entanglement comes from the system being perturbed at random from thermal vibrations.

That's not quite accurate. The difficulty in achieving entanglement comes from the inherent difficulty in isolating a quantum system from its environment. In the case of ion trap quantum computing, for example, this isolation is achieved through an ultra high vacuum. Ultra high vacuum has its own difficulties, but does not require cryogenics.

Re:No details but interesting

[smaddox]

Actually, depending on how you achieve ultrahigh vacuum, it might. Cryopumps [wikipedia.org] are pretty standard for maintaining ultrahigh vacuum, and can be used to get there from the milliTorr regime.

Re:Biodiversity Is Priceless

[Hurricane78]

And another species will like the mess we made, into which it will evolve.

Call me a misanthrope, but: So what?
The only reason we now start to care about nature, is because we start to indirectly wipe ourselves out.
I say: Let us. It’s proven to be better for the planet, in the long run. ;))

Re:Nothing new here.

[Khyber]

It's actually quantum reactions between different wavelengths of light to trigger certain things inside of the plants. The actual Emerson Effect happens when 660-670nm light is paired with 700-720nm light, however due to figuring out there is some entanglement involved, we've also found a new pair of wavelengths that do this as well, in the blue range. What we've noticed is with these specific pairings, certain photosynthetic and photomorphogenic processes increase DRAMATICALLY.

These guys are pretty much confirming something we've already figured out, though it's only been a couple of years since we've figured this out, and the technology to make it worthwhile is so expensive thanks to, well, Sony. 400-420nm diodes of any sort are hard to find because everyone's focused on Blu-Ray production. A 420nm diode is twice as expensive as any other diode right now because of this, thus making efficient LED horticultural panels very expensive to produce.

Re:Yet another nail in the coffin of vegetarianism

[ShakaUVM]

>>Do cows use quantum entanglement? no. Do sheep? no. Plants do. Why would I eat the *smarter* lifeform?

Depending on your theory of quantum mechanics, you might believe that all systems are entangled. So yeah, they all do.

Actually, grass grows very fast

[Chicken_Kickers]

Specifically, bamboo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo [wikipedia.org] which can grow 60cm in a day. The summary seems to imply that biological systems are simple compared to high tech artificial systems. I might be biased because I am a microbiologist, but nothing humans have ever constructed have even remotely approached the complexity and efficiency of biological systems. For example, have a look at the bacterial outboard motor (flagellum) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum [wikipedia.org]. Just look at it. Isn't it beautiful, complex yet efficient at what it does. Considering that at bacterial scale, the liquid medium surrounding it is like molasses, makes it more incredible.