Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Spooky Biology

Thanks to Complete Lies for heading me towards this article from H+ tracing the course of light through a photosynthetic bacteria cell. Sounds like a lot goes on in there.

"Using femtosecond lasers to follow the movement of light energy through a photosynthetic bacterial cell, Engel et al. observed the energy traveling along every possible direction at the same time. Instead of following a single trajectory like the electrons on a silicon chip, the energy in photosynthesis explores all of its options and collapses the quantum process only after the fact, retroactively “deciding” upon the most efficient pathway.

What does this all mean? Not only does quantum phenomena occur in living systems, but the basic processes of life we take for granted rely on the transfer of information backward in time. Life is so magical because it cheats..."

2 comments:

Robin Morrison said...

Thanx for this one luv. Made my day even with the ()S in []S in {}s...

amarilla said...

Wuh? Oh well, you can thank Spinoza and anaclastic glasses.