A protein has shown signs of quantum coherence , suggest it is briefly forming thebizarre state of matterin which the " Alice in Wonderland " world of quantum mechanics occurs at large scurf . While the observation are still indirect , they could open up exciting opportunities for explore both the social system of biologic molecules and quantum behavior on macroscopical scales .
At extremely low temperatures , atoms sometimes join together to behave like a single electron or photon . get it on asBose - Einstein condensate , the phenomenon sees comparatively big objective behave with themix of moving ridge and particle behaviorthat allows subatomic particles tobewilder anyoneused to thinking of natural philosophy on human scale .
Bose - Einstein condensate is normally made with atoms of a undivided constituent ( such as rubidium ) , but in 1968 , whenBose - Einstein condensate was still theoretic , physicist Herbert Fröhlich prognosticate that the same affair could occur in biological proteins . Forty - seven geezerhood by and by , a paper inStructural Dynamicshas announce evidence for what is now called Fröhlich condensate .
" observe Fröhlich capsule reach the doorway to a much wider - ranging field of what THz radiation does to protein , " tell senior authorDr . Gergely Katonaof the University of Gothenburg in astatement .
Katona and his colleagues appliedterahertz radiation(between microwave and infrared ) to crystalise lysozyme speck extracted from egg whites . lysozyme pass in humanity as well , being used by the immune organization to fight off bacterium . The team found that 0.4 THz of electromagnetic radiation caused the lysozyme to vibrate in itslowest - frequency mode .
Electron density increased when the radiation was focused on muramidase crystals , indicating helices within the molecule were compressed , and stick around that agency for at least 25 microsecond . This is consistent with Fröhlich ’s predictions , but thousands to millions of time longer than alternative models , which indicate that any energy acquired from the radioactivity would dissipate very rapidly .
The observations fall far short of witness testis white proteins behaving as waves indoubleslit experimentsor other suchmind - twisting demonstrationsof quantum conduct . However , Katona considers the findings just the source in revealing how proteins respond to radiation of this sort , specially if more sustained compression can be attain .
Katona ascribe the time lag in testing Fröhlich ’s hypothesis to the challenge of process with terahertz radiation sickness , a freshly uprise area .
Other protein are expect to have similar responses to appropriate frequence in the terahertz cooking stove , but the paper notes , “ Collective vibrations in the terahertz regime are difficult to describe because more atom are involved in the absorption process and the soaking up also depends on the three - dimensional arrangement of the polypeptide chain . ” This pass water it intemperate to match protein with theresonant frequencyrequired to energise them .
Fröhlich condensate has been propose asan explanation for consciousnessby the great mathematician Roger Penrose . This hasmade it popularwithwoo practitionerswho attribute magical power to “ quantum vibrations . ” However , since few of us have ever encountered terahertz radiation of anything like this intensity , this labor does n’t support these claim , although it belike wo n’t stop people from trying .
