Researchers find more evidence of quantum processes at work in photosynthesis
December 7, 2011 by Bob Yirka 
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers working together from the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis, have found more evidence that suggests quantum effects are at play as plants use energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into organic compounds. As they write in their paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, there appears to be a link between coherence and the way energy flows in plants.
The team contrived an experiment based on prior research that has suggested, but not shown, a link between molecules separated in space that are able to interact with one another - but are not separated in time (coherence) and the way energy flows in plants that use photosynthesis to, in effect, create their own food from the air.
Prior to this new research, scientists have been able to observe coherence in the protein cells involved in harvesting light in certain bacteria, which appeared to last longer than it rightfully should have; first only at very cold temperatures, then later, in virtually all plants at room temperature. This caused physicists to theorize that there must be a very efficient system of transferring energy going on, whereby some means was allowing every conceivable chlorophyll path to be “mapped” simultaneously, allowing for a shortest route to be chosen before any processing actually began; hence the theorizing that quantum effects may be at work.
To find out for sure, the team studied the way lasers fluctuated as they moved through the antenna proteins, keeping track of the way the fluctuations shifted. In so doing they found an obvious link between the fluctuations and the way energy flowed that could easily be described by common trigonometric functions. This result means the team was able to demonstrate in a clear way, that coherence really is involved in the way that energy is transported during photosynthesis, which means that as far as photosynthesis is concerned, micro-biologists are likely going to have to go back and take a new fresh look at what is really going on in a process that was up till now, thought to be rather well understood.
The research team, led by Greg Engel, sum up their findings by succinctly noting that the simple protein cells found in plants obviously play a more vital role in photosynthesis than anyone previously thought.
More information: G. Panitchayangkoon, D.V. Voronine, D. Abramavicius, J.R. Caram, N. Lewis, S. Mukamel, and G.S. Engel, "Direct Evidence of Quantum Transport in Photosynthetic Light-harvesting Complexes." PNAS (accepted) 2011
The Engel group page: http://engelgroup. … u/index.html
via Wired
Journal reference:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
© 2011 PhysOrg.com
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Why does a boiled egg rotates while a raw egg doesn't?
2 hours ago
-
Lightning strike in mindair
3 hours ago
-
Why does light move?
4 hours ago
-
How to calculate the repulsion force between a permanent and an electromagnet?
6 hours ago
-
Why does light allow us to see things?
6 hours ago
-
Room temperature superconductivity
6 hours ago
- More from Physics Forums - General Physics
More news stories
Is a classical electrodynamics law incompatible with special relativity?
(Phys.org) -- The laws of classical electromagnetism that were developed in the 19th century are the same laws that scientists use today. They include Maxwell’s four equations along with the Lorentz la ...
May 24, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (18) |
43
|
Landmark calculation clears the way to answering how matter is formed
(Phys.org) -- An international collaboration of scientists, including Thomas Blum, associate professor of physics, is reporting in landmark detail the decay process of a subatomic particle called a kaon – ...
May 25, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (22) |
52
|
Lying in wait for WIMPs: Researchers seek to dramatically increase sensitivity of Large Underground Xenon detector
Although it's invisible, dark matter accounts for at least 80 percent of the matter in the universe. No one knows what it is, but most scientists would bet on weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.
May 23, 2012 |
4 / 5 (7) |
18
|
Hawaii lab turns laser-powered bubbles into microrobots
(Phys.org) -- A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii are working on microrobots created from bubbles of air in a saline solution. The bubbles take on their title of “robots” as a laser ...
May 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
2
|
Sound increases the efficiency of boiling
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology achieved a 17-percent increase in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor bubbles ...
May 24, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
2
Stunning image of smallest possible five-ringed structure
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure – about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you'll probably recognise its shape.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 1.4 / 5 (10)
Seems like the evolutionists will have their work cut out for them to explain the presence of such subliminal quantum effects in plants. This is besides the already daunting task of making any kind of sense for the evolution of plants because right now there doesn't seem to have been any! Those papers that have been published have simply raised the attention to just how much is still in dispute - to the extend that it hasn't gotten off the ground yet.
Really very interesting times ahead if you're still of the opinion that life just happened by chance.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 4.9 / 5 (29)
If God just Created everything without a genesis in accord with discoverable physical law,... eventually man will discover this 'seam in reality' existing between empirical observation and the 'hand of God'. This would be a profound absurdity for a perfect God,.. so He had better have arranged things in accordance with rational theories based on observations.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (28)
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 2.5 / 5 (2)
Experiments have demonstrated, that the presence of the quantosome particles in chloroplast membrane is not a necessary condition for photoreduction activity of chloroplasts [J. Mol. Biol., 27, 323 (1967)] In prokaryotes pigments are distributed uniformly on or in the thylakoid lamellae.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 4.6 / 5 (9)
Nothing "subliminal" going on here. Quantum physics is just physics, it's not magical or supernatural.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
It means "below the threshold", which in the application Kevin used it regarding quantum physics, it's usage was actually perfectly fine.
Perhaps you need to develop your vocabulary skills, as do the two idiots who gave you a 5.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
How exactly does an intrinsic, emergent property of matter have any bearing on the ability for it to make complex interactions with itself? It's not as if the alleged ancient photosynthetic cyanobacteria ACTIVELY decided to take advantage of it. That's just the way it happened to be. Moron.
Dec 07, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (4)
Dec 08, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
How very relevant.