The Birth of Quantum Biology

Roland Piquepaille writes "Just when you finally have grasped the concept of quantum mechanics, it's time to wake up and to see the arrival of a nascent field named quantum biology. This is the scientific study of biological processes in terms of quantum mechanics and it uses today's high-performance computers to precisely model these processes. And this is what researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are doing, using powerful computer models to reveal biological mechanisms. Right now, they're working on a "nanoswitch" that might be used for a variety of applications, such as targeted drug delivery to sensors."

Comments

How is this any different?

[dorpus]

Scientists have been building 3-D computer models of organic molecules since at least the 1980s, using the same equations to predict likely reactions. It sounds like plain biochemistry given a new window dressing.

Re:How is this any different?

[wass]

Scientists have been modelling chemical systems within the quantum realm for almost a century now. The problem is that there are very few problems which can be exactly solved. Eg, the hydrogen atom is one of the few solvable ones, but in reality that's only solvable when ignoring all the fine structure corrections (no spin-orbit, relativistic, or spin-spin perturbations). Once you get to the 'difficult' problem of only a mere helium atom, which in its simplest form neglecting fine structure is 'only' two interacting electrons orbiting a nucleus that you model as just a point mass with charge +2e, things get very complicated very quickly. Now imagine modelling something more complicated like a benzen ring, then imagine an actual protein.

This isn't anything new per se, just that the complexity of the modelled systems is getting larger, and due to the numercal estimation processes needed to get anything remotely usable these realms haven't been accessible until lately with the increase of computing power. So where does one draw the line between physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and biology? In these cases, what's being modelled are primarily systems consisting of electrons, neutrons, and protons, interacting with Coulomb force (like-charges repel), spin-orbit interactions, spin-spin interactions, Pauli-exclusion principle, etc. Add more atoms, system gets more complicated, and needs bigger computers.

So it's an age-old problem, using almost age-old numerical techniques, running on new shiny computing clusters