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LONG-LIVED COHERENCE. "Here we extend previous two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy investigations of the FMO bacteriochlorophyll complex, and obtain direct evidence for remarkably long-lived electronic quantum coherence playing an important part in energy transfer processes within this system." https://lnkd.in/eiN8WgU View in LinkedIn

EXCITON'S ORGANIZED MOTION. "Engel et al., have demonstrated... that surprisingly long-lived (>660 fs) quantum coherences between excitonic states play an important role in the dynamics of energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes—i.e., the energy transfer is described by wavelike coherent motion instead of incoherent hopping." http://www.sciencemag.org/content/316/5830/1462 View in LinkedIn

QUANTUM PATHWAYS. "Recent work has documented that light-absorbing molecules in some photosynthetic proteins capture and transfer energy according to quantum-mechanical probability laws instead of classical laws at temperatures up to 180 K. This contrasts with the long-held view that long-range quantum coherence between molecules cannot be sustained in complex biological systems, even at low temperatures." https://lnkd.in/edvYfjM View in LinkedIn

PHOTOSYNTHESIS. "Photons hitting an antenna molecule will kick up ripples of energized electrons — excitons — like a rock splashing water from a puddle. These excitons then pass from one molecule to the next until they reach the reaction centre. But is their path made up of random, undirected hops, as researchers initially assumed? Or could their motion be more organized?" https://lnkd.in/eDJed9B View in LinkedIn

MECHANISTIC BLACK BOX. "Highly efficient solar energy harvesting and trapping in photosynthesis relies on sophisticated molecular machinery built from pigment-protein complexes. Although the pathways and time scales of excitation energy transfers within and among these photosynthetic complexes are well studied, less is known about the precise mechanism responsible for the energy transfer." https://lnkd.in/ednXgcJ View in LinkedIn

PHOTOSYNTHESIS. "The energy collected by these chlorosomes is transferred to the reaction centre through a specialized structure called the Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex. In 2007, Fleming and co-workers demonstrated evidence for quantum coherent energy transfer in the FMO complex, and since then the FMO protein has been one of the main subjects of research in quantum biology." https://lnkd.in/eRUdQZj View in LinkedIn

"QUANTUM coherence...has no classical analogue." https://lnkd.in/e7zeiN5 View in LinkedIn

CHLOROPHYLL QUANTUM COMPUTING. "Photosynthesis achieves a whopping 95 percent energy transfer efficiency rate, “more efficient than any other energy transfer process known to man,” says McFadden. Within chlorophyll, so-called antenna pigments guide energy from light-collecting molecules to nearby reaction-center proteins along a choice of possible pathways." http://discovermagazine.com/2014/dec/17-this-quantum-life View in LinkedIn

ADAPTION OR COINCIDENCE? "It's not yet clear if quantum coherence is adaptive. It does seem to help the efficiency of energy transfer, but that might be a happy accident – Graham Fleming, one of the pioneers in this area, says it may be simply ‘a byproduct of the dense packing of chromophores required to optimise solar absorption.' " https://lnkd.in/eJrZRx4 View in LinkedIn

QUANTUM TUNNELING. "The least disputable case, though arguably the most mundane, is enzyme catalysis, where quantum tunnelling enables proton and electron transfer. It also appears beyond doubt that photosynthesis involves transfer of energy from the excited chromophore to the reaction centre in an excitonic wavefunction that maintains a state of quantum coherence." https://lnkd.in/eJrZRx4 View in LinkedIn