"Schrödinger's Bacterium" Could Be a Quantum Biology Milestone

So ...

A recent experiment may have placed living organisms in a state of quantum entanglement

The first part of the Scientific American article reads ...

The quantum world is a weird one. In theory and to some extent in practice its tenets demand that a particle can appear to be in two places at once—a paradoxical phenomenon known as superposition—and that two particles can become “entangled,” sharing information across arbitrarily large distances through some still-unknown mechanism. Perhaps the most famous example of quantum weirdness is Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The Austrian physicist imagined how a cat placed in a box with a potentially lethal radioactive substance could, per the odd laws of quantum mechanics, exist in a superposition of being both dead and alive—at least until the box is opened and its contents observed. As far-out as that seems, the concept has been experimentally validated countless times on quantum scales. Scaled up to our seemingly simpler and certainly more intuitive macroscopic world, however, things change. No one has ever witnessed a star, a planet or a cat in superposition or a state of quantum entanglement. But ever since quantum theory’s initial formulation in the early 20th century, scientists have wondered where exactly the microscopic and macroscopic worlds cross over. Just how big can the quantum realm be, and could it ever be big enough for its weirdest aspects to intimately, clearly influence living things? Across the past two decades the emergent field of quantum biology has sought answers for such questions, proposing and performing experiments on living organisms that could probe the limits of quantum theory. Those experiments have already yielded tantalizing but inconclusive results. Earlier this year, for example, researchers showed the process of photosynthesis—whereby organisms make food using light—may involve some quantum effects. How birds navigate or how we smell also suggest quantum effects may take place in unusual ways within living things. But these only dip a toe into the quantum world. So far, no one has ever managed to coax an entire living organism—not even a single-celled bacterium—into displaying quantum effects such as entanglement or superposition. So a new paper from a group at the University of Oxford is now raising some eyebrows for its claims of the successful entanglement of bacteria with photons—particles of light. Led by the quantum physicist Chiara Marletto and published in October in the Journal of Physics Communications, the study is an analysis of an experiment conducted in 2016 by David Coles from the University of Sheffield and his colleagues.

and continues here:

Scientific American

My comments are... huh! Never even heard of quantum biology before! Now, many of us suspected as much, due to weird "esp" effects in living macro systems, but interesting when it's suggested in the "real" world by "real" scientists and not by some guy living off credulous new agers.

If posted already, then oopsie daisy.

a reply to: Baddogma

I dont believe it was posted as a thread just yet.
I posted it in the second iteration of that crazy thread you started.

How fitting you would make a thread of all people.



It's something ive been following from the time I realized the had bucky balls in superposition.. and were working on bigger and bigger molecules to entangle.. 100s of atoms then thousanda the millions of atoms in a molecule being entangles or in superposistion.. where say a bucky ball goes through both slits..

One wonders what the limits could be.

I think that esp is related.. macro sensors within which smaller pieces interact.. the article mentions bacteria being entangled with photons.. easily you could imagine structures in the brain or any cell really that might facilitate something like this.. biological advantage goes to the wolf who just sense not to take the path down the hill to the right even though it smells right.

Who knows right?

a reply to: Baddogma

I cant wait until quantum biology really takes off. There are exciting discoveries waiting for us.

Even humans are a bit "fuzzy". Our outer atoms have electron shells and those electron shells are at times "uncertain". There are experiments using lasers and mirrors which can prove this.

It's quite possible to quantum entangle billions of atoms:
www.sciencenews.org...

So putting a virus particle into a state of quantum entanglement should be easy. Bacterium seems possible. Perhaps a thin shell layer of metal atoms is required.

Now, how long have I been tellen you guys here on ATS about organic based systems being in multiple places at once? Shared interactive closed spaces for instance?

No offense ment to you BD, the arrogance of science: Nothing can exist until science allows it to exist. (then science pats itself on back congratulating itself for the "discovery".)

Needs peer confirmation. I await.

a reply to: Baddogma

My understanding is that it is the photosynthetic molecules (large antenna complexes called chlorosomes) in the bacteria that have coupled to the light. Each bacterium contains about 200 of them.

But does that mean that the bacterium as a whole is entangled. I guess that depends on how you define whole.

a reply to: Baddogma

This is worth a watch.

Could we make a three dimensional array of those bacteria and entangle each stacks bacteria with each other?

So that when a photon hit´s the surface and alters/interacts with the upper entangled bacteria, the whole stack will go through that change all at once,too?

I recognize that this would not be in agreement with the law of energy conservation? What happens to the photon when it´s reemitted, is there some energy loss or phase shifting?

Could we make remote switcheable gates with this, provided we can keep the atoms at the gate entangled with the one we´re using to control?

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: Baddogma



One wonders what the limits could be.

I think that esp is related.. macro sensors within which smaller pieces interact.. the article mentions bacteria being entangled with photons.. easily you could imagine structures in the brain or any cell really that might facilitate something like this.. biological advantage goes to the wolf who just sense not to take the path down the hill to the right even though it smells right.

Who knows right?

I think this also raises a myriad of questions...what about immortality?

for example when you die.... faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! The soul quantum tunnels to the next universe.

Really an exciting era to be alive! Behold, I wonder if this will lead to the evidence needed to confirm the mysterious dopleganger existance. 😃

Or more seriously so if it will lead to a better understanding of what lies beyond this real from a dimensional standpoint to a metaphysical one.

a reply to: Baddogma


They used light (photons) split apart shined (shining?? "Redrum. REDRUM!") upon photosynthetic bacterium, separate but in proximity to each other. The pulses demonstrated ("demon" + "strated", hehe) possible entanglement.

I would tend to think that the fine structure constant (FSC) fits in here somewhere as it seems the bacteria were just grooving on the same tune which is constrained by FSC. It surrounds us. Binds us together. Luminous beings are we! Not this crude matter! Or so I heard...

BigThink.com - Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics.

(MIT) technologyreview.com - Are There Optical Communication Channels in Our Brains?

Truth Yoda speaks, no?

I will take one mystical step further, Alex. What is the role of the supermassive black holes at the center of many galaxies and why does matter shoot out in jets???

The answer Mr. Bad"brains"dogma, is we are all entangled with the matter that exits this universe through that quantum portal spinning at the speed of light. It is like a cosmic Schumann resonance. A fingerprint for each galaxy.

Wild things go through my mind. Like sand through the hour glass!

a reply to: Reverbs

HiYa Reverbs... Oh yeah, you DID bring it up... 3 glasses of wine (red and in the 15-25$ range, as I splurged) lubed me up to post, but erased what's left of my memory. I guess I HAD heard of quantum bio before... but I'm still ignorant of it's particulars, as in why it's called QB exactly! Wiki here I come.

Whelp, as to your comment and Whatisthisthen's (no offense taken, sir, ever!), I'm still stuck with one foot in consensus materialism, even though I KNOW it's illusory and/or minimally understood... at best.

Being as psychic as the average rock, except for rare occasions, I still get a kick from mainstream validation of "woo-lite."

But I've always focused on that demarcation between micro quantum insanity and macro normalcy - where it is and if it exists. I suspect it does not.

I suspect esp is related as well ... mainly because of ignorance of how info can be transmitted instantly other than entanglement!

Brings to mind musings on the early part of the universe should the big bang be true-ish and why can't we all be entangled, though my understanding of how particles technically get entangled in the first place is minimal (or forgotten).

I've forgotten 9/10ths of my science education that mostly stopped in the 90's... and I was an English major who now cannot form a coherent sentence, so breezy idiot I am.

a reply to: Whatsthisthen

Tho I sorta replied above, wanted to say "Hi!" and "no offense and you're right."

I still need my daddy figures in big science to validate this stuff because even though we don't know if entanglement relates to esp or macro information transfer, I DO know esp, etc., is a very real thing possibly associated with quantum entanglement; and esp is heavily polluted by charlatans and whackos and real, honest, nonprejudicial, intelligent science is the best tool we have, so far, to sort it in the larger sense.

I also think that though it's not a certainty, the fingers are pointing to "mysticism" and science converging .. .though I am also guessing that most mysticism is just partially forgotten science from ages ago.

But point taken.

a reply to: blackcrowe

Yes, it was worth a listen .. .but watching it gave me a flashback as the sync was off by 4 or 5 seconds and it was a strangely formatted so that the upper portion of the shots were missing!

Darned interesting, though, and a nice overview .. .thanks!

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

There are exciting discoveries waiting for us.

I would venture to say that is the safest, truest statement E V E R.

a reply to: stormcell

Some of us humans are fuzzier than others, but yup!

Things are getting weird ... or weirder, anyway.

a reply to: Archivalist

I agree , but we can dream and speculate to heart's content while our peers review, no?

a reply to: moebius

Your understanding surpasses mine ... and that 'definition of the whole' probably branches off into the meta realms and holds some astounding revelations.

I wish I was one of the handful that really understands quantum physics and it's implications... but alas, all i can do is make explosion sounds and wave my hands around my head.

a reply to: verschickter

Er, maybe? Is that a whimpy answer? (Yes)

As far as conservation of energy, what part of quantum physics does NOT violate the laws of classical physics?