GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM BIOLOGY

The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine

By Dr Roger Taylor

As a student many years ago I was inspired by reading Schrodinger’s wonderful little book entitled “What is Life?”¹ From that I began to see how very far conventional biochemistry, which I was then studying, fell short of being an adequate scientific account of life. Erwin Schrodinger was one of the great figures who assisted at the birth of the quantum revolution. This revolution will, I think, come to be seen as a paradigm shift of comparable magnitude to that initiated by Copernicus some centuries earlier. And it is still going on, today, 50 years since Schrodinger’s book was published, it has yet to penetrate very far into mainstream biological science, and so hardly affects everyday thinking at all.

And yet, it seems to me, the revolution in thought begun by Schrodinger and his contemporaries must form part of the spiritual renewal which is so urgently needed if we are not to destroy our world, and each other. For quantum physics is a science of connection of holism; whereas classical physics is a science of separation, of reductionism. In the 60’s seeing how science was effectively “pulling the world to pieces”, people were asking how we could reverse this destructive process.Arthur Koestler was calling for a new “build-up-ism”². But at that time few people saw that quantum physics, which had been staring us in the face for 30 years, had in fact the makings of just such a holistic science.

What about biology? Throughout its history there has been an ongoing debate between mechanism and vitalism.Although mechanism has made the running so far, it has always pushed aside certain questions.  Fundamental among these is how we are to account for the unitary nature of a living organism: the way it responds as a whole to any stimulus – as if every part of it knew what every other part is doing.  Life has this holistic property at any scale, from an amoeba to an elephant, and whether or not it has a nervous system.  Quantum physics provides us with an exact science for which such a holistic view is only natural.  It lets us understand how the wavefunctions of protons and electrons which make up an atom or molecule sink their individuality to a common wavefunction: an irreducible holistic property.  I want to persuade you that a living organism is a quantum being, with a unified wavefunction, in the same way that an atom is.

Meanwhile, papers on quantum biology, which for so long have been confined to obscure symposia, are now finding their way into mainstream journals.  And a beautiful little book, a worthy successor to “What is Life?”, has just been published by Dr Mae-Wan Ho³.  What I write here owes much to this book.

Quantum Physics, in Simple Analogies

Well, what actually is quantum physics?  To understand this question requires first a simple step in perception, which anyone can take.  You simply have to discard, altogether, the notion of atoms as billiard balls, and replace it with a notion of them as vibrations.  It is just a new way of looking at the same old reality.

Consider the drawing in Fig.1.  In itself it just is: meaningless marks on paper.  But is we want to derive meaning from it, we have to add our own perceptual interpretation.  One such interpretation would see it as a young woman; another as an old woman.  The interesting thing is that you can only hold one of these interpretations in your mind at any one time.  To go from one to the other you have to make a jump: there is no way of doing it in stages.  Likewise, in physics you can either consider an electron as a wave or as a particle, but not both at the same time.

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or a young woman.

To introduce the notion of everything as vibrations, consider a taut string attached at both of its ends (Fig. 1a, b & c).  You will see immediately how it can form vibrating loops separated by quiescent nodes, and that the number of loops and nodes can only change by whole numbers (harmonics); there are no half-way states in between.  So long as the supports remain firm, it vibrates as a standing wave; there is no sense in which the waves are going anywhere – not even back and forth.  The energy is trapped.  But if one support is loosened, the energy will be released as a little travelling wave which shoots along the string (Fig. 2d).

Coherence

 (a)                                                                                                                                         (b)   

Fig. 3    (a) Dipole antenna emits coherent radio waves (classical coherence).

(b) When many dipoles emit waves independently (as in filament of light bulb) the waves become incoherent overall.

Energy Levels

To get higher notes in music you need more energy.  Think how, as you blow harder on a flute, the note suddenly flips to the next octave.  With this model in mind, it is easy to understand why it is that energy comes in an integral number of quanta, with no half-way states.  So long as the string is vibrating, it stores kinetic energy.  The more loops the higher the frequency, and the larger the amount of energy that is stored.  We shall refer to these discrete states of vibration as energy levels.

How does this idea apply to the atom?  As previously mentioned, the electrons lose their individuality to take up a wave-like pattern called a wavefunction.  An atomic nucleus can support different numbers of electrons, depending on its size.  These arrange themselves into concentric shells, or orbitals.  Each shell can only hold a certain number of electrons.  The shell nearest the nucleus fills up first.  With increasing nuclear size, as each successive shell is filled up, the next electrons have to go into another shell further out from the nucleus.

The most stable condition is where the electrons are as close to the nucleus as they can be.  When an input of energy resonates with the wavefunction of a particular shell (for example a light wave of the right frequency) then one or more electrons can stay, for a variable time, until it falls back again.  Meanwhile energy from the light wave is stored as vibrations of the displaced electron.  When the electron falls back to a more stable place in a lower energy shell, the energy is released again as a light wave of the same frequency.

This scheme has much in common with the standing wave in the string.  The progressively increasing energy levels as one proceeds further out from the nucleus are analogous to the increasing energy levels as the string is made to vibrate at progressively higher harmonics.  And in the same way as the trapped energy can be released as a travelling “string-wave”, so the electron falling back to a more stable orbital releases its extra energy as a travelling light-wave.

But there are important differences.  The string is made of matter, so the wave in it can be described by classical physics.  But the electrons in an atom sink their individuality into a common wavefunction.  Within this pattern there is no here nor there.  It is indivisible: an irreducible holistic property which cannot be described by treating the electrons as particles of matter, as one would in classical physics. 

When two atoms combine to form a molecule, some of their electrons are shared between them.  To do this they have to participate in new wavefunctions.  As molecules get larger, so the wavefunctions of shared electrons get more and more complicated.  Other forms of energy storage now become possible.  The molecule is flexible, and so can take up a number of modes of vibration, like the harmonics of the vibrating string.  The larger the molecule the more vibratory modes are possible.  In the end the energy levels get so close together that, for most practical purposes, they are treated as a continuum, according to classical physics.  Nevertheless all scientists accept the quantum vibrational account of matter as more fundamental.  At the level of individual atoms and molecules it clearly makes much more sense than the classical view of them as lumps of matter.

But can there still be a coherent vibrational mode (or a shared electronic wavefunction) throughout a really large molecule, such as a protein or DNA molecule?  And if there can be a wavefunction connecting the behaviour of the parts of a very large molecule, can there be one linking the behaviour of aggregates of molecules?  Or even larger: Schrodinger envisaged the possibility that there might be a wavefunction for the whole universe.  It is not clear where to draw the dividing line – or even if a line can be drawn.

In fact it has been possible in the laboratory to set up conditions where large numbers of atoms are linked by a common wavefunction.  This happens most easily at very low temperatures, where one sees the remarkable phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity.  And even at normal temperatures large scale quantum behaviour can be seen in the laser.  See for example the ruby laser (Fig. 4a and b).  When fed with energy (“pumped”) by an intense flash of white light, certain atoms in the ruby rod make a quantum jump to a higher level of energy – represented by dots in the diagram.  The first atoms to release this energy (as red laser light) simulate the rest of them to do the same, so that they all fall back simultaneously to the lower energy level, resulting in an intense flash of red light.  Mirrors are placed at the two ends of the rod an exact number of wavelengths apart.  This favours the development of a standing wave, which ensures that the light waves from the individual atoms all come into phase, and so make up the coherent property which distinguishes laser light from ordinary light.  Note the analogy with the vibrating string – and also how the half-silvered mirror lets some of the energy escape as a travelling wave, just as releasing one of the supports did in Fig. 2.  But again: the standing wave in the laser is a quantum wavefunction, and thus links the behaviour of the individual atoms in a way which cannot be explained by classical physics.  It is “quantum-coherent”, where the wave in the string shows only classical coherence: a relatively messy affair - like sound waves, or the waves of the sea. 

            Fig. 4a  Ruby Laser

Subtle Fields

The concept of voltage, which we use every day, has always been recognised as a relative quantity – a difference in some absolute electrostatic potential.  Likewise magnetism depends on a more fundamental magnetic vector potential.  But there has been no way of detecting or measuring these absolute potentials – and indeed they have often been assumed to be no more than a mathematical convenience.  It was only after Aharonov and Bohm had proposed an experiment⁴, and a number of groups had successfully carried it out, that the reality of the magnetic vector potential became accepted.  Even now, it remains a very subtle field, and is not detectable by any conventional instrument.  Nevertheless, as we shall see, it can have real effects both on water and on living organisms.

In such experiments it is necessary to be sure that the results are indeed due to the potential and not simply to residual magnetism.  For this purpose a coil of toroidal shape can be used (Fig. 5).

            Fig. 5    Fields produced when a current is passed through a toroidal coil

Quantum Coherence in Liquids

Laser action is not confined to solids, such as ruby, but can easily be obtained in liquids and gases as well.  In spite of this, the quantum coherence which occurs in lasers is usually regarded as a special case.  In general, the individual molecules in most materials, and especially gases and liquids, are thought to relate to each other only by “random jostling”, without any larger wavefunctions to link them in a coherent way.  Nevertheless, there is a growing body, both of theory and of experimental evidence, to support a possibility for large-scale quantum coherence in fluids – especially water.

Water has many strange properties which do not fit the expectations of conventional physical theory.  At room temperature, for example, it should be a gas, rather than a liquid.  An Italian physicist, Emilio Del Giudice, has spent many years developing a theory which explains these strange properties ⁵.  This has led him to envisage water molecules moving not by random jostling, but in distinct patterns of dynamic order.  His theory explains how the energy can be efficiently trapped – as it has to be for such a pattern to be stable.  The freedom of movement of water molecules allows for astronomic numbers of alternative patterns, each of which can last indefinitely, so long as the water is treated carefully.  Too much heat or strong electromagnetic fields, however, would be expected to destroy the pattern. 

What evidence is there that such patterns actually exist?  Insofar as homoeopathy is medically effective, then it can be taken as evidence.  But in addition there is much evidence from experimental tests of homoeopathy – which has been largely ignored because unpublished outside homoeopathic journals.  Therefore the furore when Jacques Benveniste’s work was published in Nature^4b.  By an exhaustive series of ever more strictly controlled experiments he showed that a sample of water, from which every last molecule of the active substance has been diluted out, could still bring about easily observable effects on human blood cells in culture.

In homoeopathy the pattern of a substance is imprinted on the water by a procedure consisting of a number of stages of dilution, each followed by vigorous shaking (“succession”), until the last molecule of the substance has been diluted out.  Significantly, however, patterns can also be imprinted on water by means of electromagnetic fields.  This aspect has been much investigated by Dr Cyril Smith.  He has developed the ability to detect such frequency-information by means of dowsing^4c.  He holds his pendulum between the water to be tested, and the coil of a signal generator.  The pendulum responds whenever there is a resonance – as when the frequency in the coil matches that previously imprinted in the water.

            Fig. 6    Instrumental detection of frequency-information imprinted in water.

Dr Smith has also been able to detect these weak resonances, in fully objective fashion, by means of a very sensitive instrument.  In Fig. 6 a sample of water was imprinted with a frequency of 1kHz.  This is detected as a distinct resonance as the signal generator passes 1kHz: upper trace.  The same sample was then additionally imprinted with a 1.1kHz.  A second resonance can now be seen at this frequency in the lower trace.  There is a limit to how much information can be added by such sequential treatments: just as with magnetic tape, the later information tends to overwrite the earlier. 

To imprint a frequency on water, only a very weak electromagnetic field is sufficient – so long as the water is succussed in the presence of the field.  Of particular note is Dr Smith’s finding that, with succussion, the pattern could also be imprinted just as well by the vector potential from a toroidal coil (as in Fig. 5) from which no magnetic field reaches the water at all.

These results make sense only in quantum physics, but not in classical physics.  The pattern of dynamic order is a property of the whole of the water sample, not of the individual molecules.  The quantum behaviour of water is turning out to be of crucial significance for biology.

Quantum  Biology

Protoplasm

When, under the crude early microscopes, it first became possible to see cells, they were described as being filled with a clear gummy fluid: protoplasm.  A bit later, objects were seen floating in it: nucleus, chloroplasts, mitochondria.  As microscopes improved, so more and more organelles were discovered, eventually to make up the present picture of protoplasm as being densely packed with structures, leaving only a minor fraction of unstructured “cytosol”.  Indeed there is further evidence now that all of the macromolecules participate in structure of some kind – and probably even most of the small molecules and water as well. 

And yet it still behaves essentially as a fluid.  Anyone who has seen an accelerated film of living cells can be in no doubt of that.  The ceaseless intense activity is breathtaking: swirling of cytoplasm, turning from sol to gel and back again, and continuous formation and dissolution of organelles.  It turns out that our understanding has been heavily influenced by the methods we use.  Thus in Mae-Wan Ho’s words “Biology has a long tradition of fixing, pinning, clamping, pressing, pulping, homogenising, extracting, fractionating and purifying – all of which have given rise to, and reinforced a static and atomistic view of the organism”.

Dynamic Order

So there is a big problem: how are all these complex structures maintained against the forces of disorder?  It simply does not work to think of them as being glued together, as solids, in a static concept of order.  Instead, as Schrodinger realised, one has to replace such ideas with a dynamic concept of order, in which the jiggling and jostling of molecules is no longer random, but is correlated into complex patterns.

For such dynamic organisation to work, it is not enough for molecules to interact only by colliding with each other, according to conventional ideas: there must be communications between them at a distance.  The need for such a concept becomes especially obvious when you consider the problem of how two rare molecules find each other, as they often have to do.  There simply is not enough time for them to do this by random jiggling about, so they must be able to attract each other specifically.

Efficient Energy Conversion

Other problems too remain unexplained by the conventional view.  One was emphasised by the biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, as far back as the 40’s: how do organisms manage such extremely rapid and efficient energy conversion?  For example the conversion of energy stored in the high-energy molecule ATP into muscular movement approaches 100% efficiency.  And yet none of the heat engines on which our civilisation depends can manage more than about 30%.  Again, many biological enzymes operate orders of magnitude faster in their natural environment in the cell than they do in the test tube.  Conventional biochemistry does not explain why this should be so.

Extraordinary Sensitivity

Another unexplained problem is how organisms can be so extremely sensitive to stimuli.  For example the cat’s eye can respond to a single quantum of light.  And the ear can hear sound so faint that they fall below the level of thermal noise – which is what puts the limit on man-made microphones.  Besides light, more and more examples are accumulating of organisms responding to lower electromagnetic frequencies.  These again can be of extremely low energy – often well below the noise level which limits the sensitivity of man-made radio receivers.  As we shall see later, these remarkable properties of living matter begin to fall into place when considered according to quantum principles.

Space-Time Structure

We have considered the spatial structure of organisms, which is “deep” in the sense that it is present at every level of scale, from the shape of the whole organism, through organs to cells to organelles to macromolecules –even down to the very water.  If all this structure is in constant movement, then there must be a deep time structure as well.  And this indeed is what we find.  The activities of life are cyclical, and vary from the longest, the life cycle, through annual, monthly, daily cycles to shorter rhythms such as heart beat and brain wave rhythms.  In addition, there is a great variety of biochemical rhythms within cells, of different time-periods, down to the most rapid events possible: resonant energy transfer, which take of the order of 10^‑14 seconds.

Frequency Coupling

            Fig. 7  Illustration of the principle of frequency-coupling

If the small pendulums are set swinging in the incoherent manner, they will not exactly cancel each other out, and so will transfer some energy to the support.  Once this is swinging, it will tend to bring the small pendulums to beat in time (in phase) with each other.  Eventually you will have the large and the small keeping perfect time.  More and more examples of this kind of thing in organisms are coming to light.  If you sit quietly, then your heartbeat will tend to keep time with your breathing.  Many biochemical cycles keep time with each other.  One of the most dramatic (observed by Dr Ho) concerned a mutant of the fruit fly Drosophila, which had a diurnal period shorter than the normal 24 hours.  Amazingly she found that the rate of wing-beats during its love-dance was also shortened by exactly the same factor.  Coupling can also occur between individual organisms – as in some fireflies which flash (or crickets chirp) in unison.

Dr Ho has an apt metaphor for the precise correlation of all this complex activity within an organism: she likens it to a grand ballet, or a jazz band, where each member is doing their own thing, and yet they are all correlated within an overall pattern of movement, or sound.  And just as a ballet or symphony has a beginning, middle and end, so does an organism begin its life, flourish, and finally die.

Forms Generated by Energy Flow 

It is possible to impose dynamic organisation in a fluid by arranging for a continuous flow of energy.  In a very simple example (Fig. 8) heat energy flowing from left to right maintains a temperature difference, which keeps the gas molecules further apart at the hot end than the cold.  A very simple “structure” thus results.

            Fig. 8    Energy flow imposes a simple order on the distribution of

gas molecules  

A more complex example is shown in Fig. 9a, b, c.  As heat is applied to the bottom of a dish containing liquid, the hot liquid expands and tries to rise.  At first there are chaotic currents going up and down but, at some point, there is an abrupt transition to an ordered state, in which the currents arrange themselves into the pattern seen in Fig. 9c.  Discovered by Benard in 18  , the pattern of flow can be made visible by adding a flaky metal powder.  It then looks like a honeycomb when seen from above.  These examples also demonstrate close analogies with the laser, both in the requirement for energy flow (“pumping”), and in the abrupt transition from a chaotic to an ordered state.

The energy to generate structure can be supplied in any form, not only heat.  In organisms it comes from chemical reactions.  The Zhabotinski reaction (Fig. 10) is a laboratory example which forms a beautiful demonstration of the principle.  The dish contains water with a certain mixture of chemicals, including an indicator dye which can be either red or blue.  At first it is all red.  Then, at a few random points appear blue spots.  These grow, and become red in the middle, then blue again, so as to form expanding rings like ripples spreading from the point where a stone has been thrown into a pond – or spirals, as shown.  If the liquid is stirred these very obvious structures are immediately destroyed, and all becomes red again until, after a while, the rings start to form again.  The process continues until the chemicals are exhausted.

Living Forms Arise from Patterns of Energy Storage Not Found in Dead Matter
Living structure depends on underlying patterns in the storage and flow of energy.  Thus the distribution of energy in living matter is very different from what physical studies of dead matter lead one to expect.  Fig. 11 shows how quantum energy levels

can be allocated to three “grades”.

            Fig. 11  Three grades of energy levels  

The figure shows a dumbbell-shaped molecule.  At the left are the levels of electronic excitation mentioned earlier.  In the centre are molecular vibrational levels – analogous to those in the vibrating string.  At the right is the energy of molecular movement – translational energy.  (There is so much freedom here that there will be an enormous number of quantum energy levels, spaced very close together).  When energy stored in the electronic levels is released it emerges as visible light.  Vibrational energy is mainly infra-red, while translational energy extends into the microwave and lower frequencies.

In a piece of dead matter, the distribution of energy between these grades depends on temperature, according to Boltzmann’s law (Fig. 12).  The distribution of its radiated frequencies is the well-known “black body” radiation.  At room temperature (as also shown in Fig. 11) the energy is mainly in the form of translational movement.  Not until an object becomes red hot will you begin to see anything of electronic excitation.  But a living organism goes right against this law.  At normal temperatures a high proportion of the energy is in the vibrational and electronic modes.  In this respect an organism is again analogous to a laser which, while it is working, also exhibits an “inversion” of the Boltzmann distribution.

Evidence for the Model  

Thus far I have tried to present a picture of the physics of organisms as it might be if the principles of quantum physics extended not only to individual molecules (as is generally believed) but to the whole organism.  But it is easy to speculate.  What evidence do we have?  There is in fact a great deal of evidence.  Here I shall have to limit myself to one or two examples from some of the main lines of argument.

Long Range Forces

As mentioned earlier, molecular contact is not sufficient to account for the maintenance of dynamic structures in liquid, or to explain how rare molecules find each other.  There must be long range forces.  In theory a force can occur between any two molecules when they resonate electrically at the same frequency.  Whether this force is attractive or repulsive will depend on the phase relations so, for a cohesive force between large numbers of molecules or cells, they would all have to resonate in phase as well.  This condition could only be achieved if they share in the same quantum wavefunction, like the resonating atoms of a laser.

But is there real evidence of such long range attractive forces?  Some of the most impressive is of an attractive force between whole cells.  A Canadian biologist, Stephen Rowlands, studied the well-known phenomenon of “rouleaux formation” in the red blood cells⁵.  If a sample of blood is allowed to stand some minutes, these cells begin to stick together like stacks of plates.

Rowlands observed that, like any small particles, the cells jiggled about by random Brownian motion.  He then saw how, when two cells approached to within about 3u (1/3 of a cell diameter) they moved together in non-random fashion, as if impelled by a force.  In a number of further experiments he confirmed that this movement was the result of an oscillatory electric field, and was abolished if the cells’ energy metabolism was in any way inhibited.  Using mixtures of red cells from different species, he showed that the attraction had considerable specificity.

This sort of mechanism is likely to be all-important in the generation of biological form.  For example, Del Giudice has shown how such quantum-coherent fields could collect and align the molecular subunits of biological fibrils.  If the field-induced attraction between cells is specific, then clearly it could contribute to the formation of organs.  Why not to the whole organism?

Sensitivity to Weak Electromagnetic Fields  

Just like a piano string, any molecule (or larger structure) will be affected by an electromagnetic (EM) field if this includes frequencies which resonate with the molecule’s natural modes of vibration.  Such resonance will usually tend to speed up whatever chemical reactions the molecule is involved in.  But the molecule will already be vibrating in most of its modes as a result of heat – which is in effect a broad combination of all frequencies.  So, for the field to have a specific effect on that molecule alone, it must have a very precise (narrow band) frequency.  Such a narrow band field may now be effective, even if its energy is lower than the total thermal noise.  (Nevertheless, in spite of much evidence, it was not until 1990 that a publication pointing out how this must be so reached the august pages of the mainstream journal Science⁶).

Out of the vast amount of experimental evidence, I shall choose three examples.  In the first Walter Grundler⁷ treated yeast cultures with very low energy (sub-thermal) microwaves, ranging in frequency from 41,650 to 41,850 MHz.  He measured the rate of growth at each of a number of closely-spaced frequencies.  In the figure (Fig. 13) which represents the average of a number of similar experiments, you can see how the yeast grows slightly faster at some frequencies, and slightly slower at others.  The ability of the yeast to discriminate these very closely-spaced frequencies, each only a tiny fraction of a semitone on the audio scale, is an impressive reflection of its own finely-tuned field structure.

            Fig. 13  Growth rate of yeast plotted against frequency of microwaves

In the previous two examples it is not easy to approach the question of just how, in molecular terms, the fields produce the effects they do.  Indeed, in many cases (especially at the lower frequencies) there may be no simple relation to molecular mechanisms because the vibrating structures consist of large numbers of molecules.  In looking for such mechanisms, Tian-Yiow Tsong and colleagues⁸ considered a type of protein molecules which are fixed in the cell membrane, passing all the way across: trans-membrane proteins.  Some of these perform as ion-pumps, either pushing Sodium out of the cell or Potassium in, and so maintaining the electrical potential which is essential to the cell’s life.  In order to perform this function, such a molecule has to change its conformation for each ion passes: literally to pump the ion through.  These authors though: if they exposed cells to an electric field of a frequency which resonated with the conformational change of one of these proteins, then it might be made to pump faster (Fig. 14a).  This actually is what happened (Fig. 14b).  The figure shows how one frequency is optimal for the Sodium pump, and another for the Potassium pump.

Fig. 14a How an oscillating electric field could change the shape of a protein in the   cell membrane  

on movement of Sodium out of (A) and Potassium in to the cell (B).  Other symbols are controls.

Effects of Static Magnetic Fields

In addition to oscillating fields, as just described, there is a great deal of evidence that organisms respond to static, or constant fields.  For example many organisms are able to orient themselves using the earth’s magnetic field.  A very interesting recent example comes again from Mae-Wan Ho⁹.  She found that when her Drosophila embryos were exposed (at a particular stage in their development) to a magnetic field some 10 times stronger than that of the earth, they grew in a distorted fashion (Fig. 15).  What is particularly significant is that the same distortions could be produced not only by a coil of standard design, but also by a toroidal coil, as described earlier.  Since the magnetic field is entirely enclosed within such a coil, we must assume that the embryos are being affected by a much more subtle field: the magnetic vector potential.

            Fig. 15  Effect of magnetic field (or vector potential) on Drosophila embryos

– (a) is the normal embryo, (b), (c) and (d) are distorted.

Fields Produced by Organisms

If organisms are in fact structured by a pattern of fields, then it should be possible to detect these fields from the outside.  The problem is that, over most of the spectrum, our instruments are not yet sensitive enough.  Only at the extremes of low and high frequency can we detect life fields.  At the low frequency end are the gross electrical events in the body, such as are produced by the heart, brain, nerves and muscles.  There are also relatively constant voltages between different parts of the body.  Robert Becker, who has studied these, finds that they play a role in wound healing, helping to ensure that the healed part conforms to the proper shape – for example when a salamander regenerates its leg.  Such a DC potential can also be found in early embryos, where it specifies the antero-posterior axis, which is the first indication of the shape the organisms will later take up.  Intriguingly, Mae-Wan Ho has recently detected irregular low-frequency pulses from her Drosophila embryos.  The function of these pulses is not yet known.

Biophotons

Most study has been directed to the upper end of the frequency scale: visible and ultra-violet light.  Here the photons have the highest energy, and can be detected individually by a photon-detector.  (Yet higher frequencies such as x-rays are assumed not to be involved, since they are destructive to life).  An intensive study of this “ultra-weak luminescence” has been made over many years by Fritz-Albert Popp¹⁰.  He finds that it is universally present in all living cells – only excepting those, like red blood cells, which lack a nucleus.  The intensity seems to be about equally distributed throughout the spectrum: so to make white light.  This is not what you would expect, either from black body radiation, or from any single luminescent chemical reaction.  It accords more with an overall redistribution of grades of stored energy as seen in Fig. 12.

When luminous paint is exposed to light, it stores some of the energy and gives it out later.  In fact almost any object, including living organisms, will do this, but to a much smaller degree.  What is remarkable is that no matter what colour of light is shone onto an organism, it still puts out the same light.  It is as if you struck a tuning fork with a single frequency, and the piano had responded with sound from all of its notes.  Dr Popp finds he can account for this only by assuming that all the frequencies are coupled together, just as in the metaphor of the jazz-band mentioned earlier.

Such a conception would only be possible if the light were coherent, like laser light.  In further support of this, Popp points to a number of other unusual characteristics of biophotons which, however, are not easy to describe simply.  Among these are: Poisson rather than normal photon-count statistics, and hyperbolic rather than exponential decay after brief illumination.  He also advances evidence that much light energy is stored, in the form of electronic excitations, in the DNA.

Some organisms can store light energy for a remarkably long time.  Mae-Wan Ho found that her Drosophila embryos (again only at a particular stage) would re-emit light, in irregular bursts, up to one hour or more after they had been briefly illuminated.  Such irregular (or “non-linear”) behaviour is characteristic of complex processes, and supports the idea that the light stored by organisms, although minute in quantity, is nevertheless fundamental to their very being.

If this is true, then one would expect the quantity of light put out by an organism to be extremely sensitive to its physiological state.  And indeed it is: both internal changes (eg in its life cycle) and changes in its environment – temperature, nutrition etc.  The most dramatic effects are seen when the organism dies, or is in dire trouble.  Then the light output shoots up to ten times or more of the usual level.  When this happens the stores light, instead of performing its organising function in the body, leaks out and goes to waste.

Electromagnetic Communication

Biophotons can play a role in exchange of information not only within a single cell, but between cells, or even separate organisms.  In a typical experiment, Fritz Popp kept adding more and more Daphnia (water fleas) to the same volume of water (Fig. 16).

            Fig. 16  Light output (in photon counts per second) of increasing numbers

                        (from 1 to 90) of Daphnia.

If each animal continued to put out the same amount of light, independent of its neighbours, then you would expect the light to increase more or less in proportion to the numbers, according to the upper line.  But in fact it went up very sharply at first (lower line) and then levelled off to a constant value.  It is as if all the cells had agreed on the amount of light they would put out collectively.  The same thing has been seen (by a number of researchers including Popp) with mammalian cells in tissue culture (Fig. 17a).

            Fig. 17  Light output of increasing numbers of normal (a) and cancer (b) cells.

What is very interesting (and may ultimately be very significant for medicine) is that the cancer cells do not seem to respond to their neighbours, but continue to do their own thing however many other cells are present (Fig. 17b).  It is as if they are “out of touch”: just as one would expect from their uncontrolled behaviour.

Is this communication to be thought of along the lines of classical physics: like radio, or a message sent in light down a fibre-optic cable?  Or can a quantum wavefunction extend between cells, or even between organisms?  Some evidence that two or more human beings may link in to the same wavefunction is mentioned below, in relation to quantum consciousness.

According to a theory recently put forward by Popp, the organisms might adjust the phase of their electromagnetic output so as to more or less cancel each other out.  (They could only do this if the waveforms were sufficiently similar – as one would expect them to be among cells of the same type, or organisms or the same species).  Perhaps this is why the amount of light put out by a group of normal cells is sometimes so very low, compared to that from the cancer cells (Fig. 17a).  Against this low background then, the organisms will be exquisitely sensitive to the slightest deviation, either in frequency or phase, by any one of them.  Likewise, any deviant organism will be enabled immediately to correct itself by reference to the group signal.

Quantum  Consciousness

The relation between subjective experience and the objective world has been discussed by philosophers since time began.  Science, on the other hand, has been able to cope with this problem only by excluding subjective experience from its realm of discourse.  But things are changing.  Recently there has been intense interest among scientists in consciousness; an interest reflected in the appearance of several books, and a prestigious new journal¹¹.  We have seen how quantum theory can account for the way small units (eg atoms) become organised into larger wholes, which are unified by sharing a common wavefunction.  The larger wholes now possess new holistic properties which could not have been predicted from knowledge of the small units in their separated state.  If a living being is indeed unified by an overall wavefunction, some argue, then consciousness would be such a holistic property which would never be guessed from any knowledge of its parts.  Quantum theory might thus account for that puzzling fact of experience: the unitary nature of the self¹².

Here a remarkable recent discovery in physics may be relevant.  It was Einstein who first saw a very puzzling implication of quantum theory.  When two particles have once interacted, then their subsequent behaviour should remain correlated, no matter how far they may separate from each other.  This seemed to him so unbelievable that at first he tried to use it to discredit quantum physics.  However, the reality of this strange prediction has now been proved experimentally.  The phenomenon is termed quantum entanglement: as a result of their interaction the two particles become entangled in the same wavefunction.  It then becomes as if the space between them no longer existed.

Now that quantum entanglement (or non-locality) is an accepted fact, some scientists have seen that it can open the way to an understanding of so-called paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception (ESP).  Thus one might suppose that, when two individuals have interacted significantly (eg mother and child, lover, identical twins) they may remain in touch with each other in a way that it independent of normal signals.

While most of the scientific work on ESP, as occurring in the conscious mind, has proved hard to repeat, it now seems that subconscious events may provide more robust and repeatable indicators of ESP.  Here I just want to quote one result showing evidence of paranormal (presumably quantum) correlation between the brain waves of individuals who have interacted significantly¹³.  It shows the brain wave traces of two individuals in love and how at times they actually mirror each other quite closely (Fig. 18).

            Fig. 18  Correlations between the brain waves of two individuals in love.

                        Compare upper and lower traces of each pair.

Quantum Medicine

If we are to accept the quantum account of biology, then it would provide support, at the most basic scientific level, for a holistic approach to medicine.  It explains how every part of the body seems to know what every other part is doing, and thus supports the basic principle of treating the whole person and not just the affected organ or the disease.

Quantum biology opens the way to a more scientific approach to many aspects of holistic, or complementary medicine.  In particular, the use of a variety of waves, or vibrations, in treatment.  These include sound, electromagnetic (including light), and homoeopathy – in which the vibrations are encoded in water.  Together these are now becoming known as Vibrational Medicine¹⁴.

Another term widely used is Energy Medicine.  The energy in this case is what is known as subtle energy.  Although not recognised by mainstream science or medicine, subtle energy is a daily experience of many therapists who have hands-on contact with clients: acupuncturists, osteopaths, masseurs, etc.  They can obtain information on the client’s condition by means of sensations which do not seem to have any material cause.  Subtle energy also forms the basis of the faculty of dowsing.  In addition the activity of healing (the reality of which is attested by an impressive body of research¹⁵) is not explicable by psychological effects alone, and so requires some as yet unknown influence.  Since the existence of fields more subtle than electromagnetism is now accepted in physics, and there are a few experiments (described above) demonstrating the activity of such a field on water and on biological systems, we have the beginnings of a scientific account of subtle energy.  Much more on these lines should be expected in the next few years.  With the addition of a scientific understanding the traditional complementary practices have already been greatly extended.  New diagnostic methods are now widely used which employ instruments to measure the body’s response to subtle energy.  New therapeutic instruments are being rapidly developed.  These can deliver either conventional electromagnetic fields, or more subtle fields, and may even transmit the information from homoeopathic remedies directly to the patient by means of fields.

Finally, new ideas of consciousness, and its role in the creation of reality, will radically change our perception of the role of mind in health and disease: both the mind of the patient, and the mind of the doctor/therapist.

Epilogue – Does Quantum Physics Mean Anything?

In common with many ancient cultures, the Greeks had a strong feeling for the harmony of nature.  This feeling was given formal support by Pythagoras and his followers, who pointed out the fundamental relationship between music and number.  It is an idea which resonates with meaning for us at a deep level, since the feelings engendered by music can go way beyond ego needs, whether physical or psychological.  Great music brings intimations of our ultimate connectedness, so that we see ourselves as participants in a grander universe.  And, seeing ourselves thus reflected in other beings, and in our surroundings, we may appreciate that these also bear the same intrinsic value which we unhesitatingly allot to ourselves.

As a result, however, of the development of science over the centuries since Greek times, the concept of intrinsic value has lost its meaning, so that the value of anything, animal, vegetable or mineral, has been reduced to its material value for us as material beings – ultimately its monetary value.

Established ideas die hard.  Although there have been many attempts to assign meaning to quantum physics, the most influential voice has come from Niels Bohr, who advised us not to bother with the meaning of quantum physics, but just to follow wherever its peculiar logic led.  For most scientists who followed him it has been enough that it works, and they have devoted their energies into finding what technological goodies can be got out of it.  A sad reflection on how science has become reduced, so that it is now hardly distinguishable from technology.

We have seen how quantum physics gives us a picture of the world as made of energy, existing in the form of vibrations of different frequencies.  The organised structures we see: particles, atoms, molecules, and living organisms, cohere as lasting entities by virtue of frequency-coupling, or harmony, in the vibrations.  Thus it is that quantum physics is leading us to a re-appraisal of Pythagorean ideas of the world as based on music.  I hope this assay will play some small part to re-awaken our perceptions of harmony in nature, and so encourage the transformation of science into its next paradigm.

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