The Origin of Life and the Hidden Role of Quantum Criticality

KentuckyFC writes One of the great puzzles of biology is how the molecular machinery of life is so finely coordinated. Even the simplest cells are complex three dimensional biochemical factories in which a dazzling array of machines pump, push, copy, and compute in a dance of extraordinarily detailed complexity. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how the ordinary processes of electron transport allow this complexity to emerge given the losses that arise in much simpler circuits. Now a group of researchers led by Stuart Kauffmann have discovered that the electronic properties of biomolecules are entirely different to those of ordinary conductors. It turns out that most biomolecules exist in an exotic state called quantum criticality that sits on the knife edge between conduction and insulation. In other words, biomolecules belong to an entirely new class of conductor that is not bound by the ordinary rules of electron transport. Of course, organic molecules can be ordinary conductors or insulators and the team have found a few biomolecules that fall into these categories. But evolution seems to have mainly selected biomolecules that are quantum critical, implying that that this property must confer some evolutionary advantage. Exactly what this could be isn't yet clear but it must play an important role in the machinery of life and its origin.

Comments

Re:"Complexity" is very subjective.

[garyisabusyguy]

Oh dear, is this the culture that comes from giving losers trophies?

The original post was using examples to illustrate their point, that being complexity is a term used by an observer that does not understand what they are looking at

Taking offense with the entire argument because you resemble one of the examples is pretty much weak sauce and only makes you worse for ignoring the actual point of the post

As far as being polite goes... I find directness to be much more useful. Just think about how many planes have crashed because the co-pilot thought that it would be rude to point out that their senior pilot was making a mistake