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Quantum physics meets biology

Source: HFSP J. 3, 386 (2010); doi:10.2976/1.3244985

Published 9 November 2009

KEYWORDS and PACS
Keywords
PACS
  • 87.90.+y
    Other topics in biological and medical physics
  • 03.65.-w
    Quantum mechanics
  • YEAR: 2010
PUBLICATION DATA
Publisher:
AIP is a member of CrossRef HFSP
Markus Arndt,1 Thomas Juffmann,1 and Vlatko Vedral2,3
1Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
2Atomic and Laser Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
3Department of Physics and Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Quantum physics and biology have long been regarded as unrelated disciplines, describing nature at the inanimate microlevel on the one hand and living species on the other hand. Over the past decades the life sciences have succeeded in providing ever more and refined explanations of macroscopic phenomena that were based on an improved understanding of molecular structures and mechanisms. Simultaneously, quantum physics, originally rooted in a world-view of quantum coherences, entanglement, and other nonclassical effects, has been heading toward systems of increasing complexity. The present perspective article shall serve as a “pedestrian guide” to the growing interconnections between the two fields. We recapitulate the generic and sometimes unintuitive characteristics of quantum physics and point to a number of applications in the life sciences. We discuss our criteria for a future “quantum biology,” its current status, recent experimental progress, and also the restrictions that nature imposes on bold extrapolations of quantum theory to macroscopic phenomena. ©2009 HFSP Publishing
History: Received 2 July 2009; accepted 17 September 2009; published 9 November 2009
Permalink: http://dx.doi.org/10.2976/1.3244985

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