Name: Quantum Biology
Start: 2018-05-16T
End: 2018-05-16T
Location: The Red Lion

A lot of people may be familiar with the term ‘Quantum Mechanics’ but how about ‘Quantum Biology’? From avian navigation to photosynthesis, it seems that nature has been using some quantum mechanics tricks to do its job. We will explore the area of quantum biology together and look at “What is Life?” with quantum mechanics.

Harvesting light: is photosynthesis more quantum than we thought?

Henry Maguire (PhD student)

It was long expected that quantum weirdness - along with Schrodinger's cat - was reserved for cold or simple systems under lab conditions. The disorder present in biological molecules - which are large, complex and warm - was thought to quickly wash away any delicate "quantumness" that might arise: electrons should then bounce around like snooker balls, not flow like waves! Remarkably, wave-like behaviour has now been observed in some photosynthetic organisms: the highly efficient machinery responsible for all life on Earth. Is quantum mechanics really playing a role here and why might we care

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