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.