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PERPLEXING PROTEIN TUNNELING. "It is remarkable that such long-distance electron transfer in biology occurs through quantum mechanical tunnelling, because electron tunnelling over such long distances would be impossible in vacuum." https://lnkd.in/eRUdQZj View in LinkedIn

CULTURE GAP: PHYSICS AND BIOLOGY. "Biology today is where physics was at the beginning of the twentieth century...It is faced with a lot of facts that need an explanation..."What has been all too rare in biology is the symbiosis between theory and experiment that is routine in physics." https://lnkd.in/eVFhtfq View in LinkedIn

"LONG-RANGE ELECTRON TRANSFER through proteins often show exponential distance dependence as well as weak temperature dependence, providing a strong indication that a single-step tunnelling mechanism is responsible for these biological processes." https://lnkd.in/eRUdQZj View in LinkedIn

HAPPY NEW YEAR. Humans have a long way to go not to simply be a planetary menace, or as Attenborough said "a scourge upon the earth". View in LinkedIn

ENZYME QUANTUM TUNNELING. "Researchers have known for several years that in some enzyme-catalysed reactions, protons move from one molecule to another by the quantum-mechanical phenomenon of tunnelling, in which a particle passes through an energy barrier rather than having to muster the energy to climb over it." https://lnkd.in/eDJed9B View in LinkedIn

"ELECTRON TRANSFERS between the proteins of the cellular respiratory chains occur over ca. 10-20 Å and are usually assumed to follow the coherent super-exchange mechanism. When some molecular fragment(s) are susceptible to host the electron (or a hole) transiently on the way to the acceptor (donor) site, multistep (incoherent) hopping is likely to be the dominant mechanism." https://lnkd.in/eMTJFEQ View in LinkedIn

"ENZYMES can employ a weird quantum trick called tunnelling. Simply put, the enzyme encourages a process whereby electrons and protons vanish from one position in a biochemical and instantly rematerialise in another, without visiting any of the in-between places – a kind of teleportation." https://lnkd.in/eYXPebN View in LinkedIn

UNCANNY WATER. "Microtubule nanotubes are found in every living eukaryotic cells; these are formed by reversible polymerization of the tubulin protein, and their hollow fibers are filled with uniquely arranged water molecules. Water channel inside microtubule does a mysterious job that enables microtubules with 40,000 tubulins to demonstrate conductivity 1000 times more than the single tubulin protein." https://lnkd.in/e27q_UB View in LinkedIn

LONG-RANGE. "Experimental data have clearly demonstrated that long-range electron transfer between redox centres in proteins separated by distances of the order of 15–30 Å plays important roles in respiration and photosynthesis." https://lnkd.in/eRUdQZj View in LinkedIn

MITOCHONDRIAL WATER."Distinct electron tunneling pathways between neighboring Fe/S clusters are identified; the pathways primarily consist of two cysteine ligands and one additional key residue. Internal water between protein subunits is identified as an essential mediator enhancing the overall electron transfer rate by almost three orders of magnitude to achieve a physiologically significant value." https://lnkd.in/eVUc77C View in LinkedIn