Possible Superconductivity In the Brain? (springer.com)

"The unprecedented power of the brain suggests that it may process information quantum-mechanically," according to a new research paper. Long-time Slashdot reader time961 writes: Pavlo Mikheenko, a superconductivity researcher at the University of Oslo, has published a paper in the Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism (abstract only; arxiv pre-print here) suggesting that microtubule structures in pig neurons exhibit evidence of superconductivity that could represent a mechanism for quantum computing performed by the brain to achieve the brain's phenomenal information processing power. The observed effects (at room temperature and standard atmospheric pressure) are claimed to indicate a critical temperature of 2022 +/- 157 K, far higher than the 135 K achieved in other materials under similar conditions.

Interesting, if true.

Comments

Re:This is Pseudoscience BS

[Stormy Dragon]

And believe me, it's sad to see one of our great minds turn into a nut.

I minored in physics at Penn State in the late 90s when he was at the Penn State Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos at Penn State, so I actually attended some of the original lectures he gave on QM. It was just as nutty back then. He basically dreamed up an entirely new particle that didn't exist in the standard model and which had never been detected and then postulated it interacted with microtubules in some unknown way to cause some unknown effect and *MAGIC* consciousness happens.

Even though it was known at the time that's not what microtubules do and that there's no way a neuron could maintain quantum decoherence long enough for it to have any effect on its synaptic function.

It is and always was a bunch of wishful thinking because Penrose personally couldn't deal with the idea free-will may be an illusion.

Re:This is Pseudoscience BS

[gweihir]

Well, since all attempts to model a human mind conventionally have failed and since quantum stuff is pretty much the only additional mechanism Physics currently offers, it does have a point. I do agree that it is mysticism. But unless Physics finds something else that could explain the mind (seems rather unlikely at this stage), mysticism is pretty much the only possible explanation. Yes, I find this unsatisfactory too. But this does not blind me to the known facts.