“Quantum Biology”: How nature might be optimized to harness quantum mechanics

Speaker: Clarice D. Aiello
Date: Thursday 8 October 10:30am – 11:30am AEDT
Zoom: Click here to join the seminar

Abstract:

Accumulating experimental evidence suggests that quantum mechanical effects underlie how organisms function. “Quantum Biology” includes phenomena as varied as: magnetic field detection for animal navigation; metabolic and enzymatic regulation in cells; and optimal energy harvesting in photosynthesis. Unveiling such phenomena at all length scales (i.e., from the nanoscale to whole organisms) has remained a challenge, but can lead to the development of: biomimetic electromagnetic probes; room-temperature quantum computing architectures; improved photovoltaics; and novel therapeutics, among other novelties.

In this talk, I will review some of the evidence in support of these phenomena, besides discussing proposed underlying biophysical mechanisms and potential implications on human, plant and environmental biology. Can quantum mechanics be established – or refuted! – to account for physiologically relevant phenomena, and be manipulated to technological and therapeutic advantage?

This is the exciting question that the field of “Quantum Biology” should aim to answer in the near future. I will argue that successful efforts in Quantum Biology will be contingent on interdisciplinarity, multi-scale approaches, and close theory-experiment collaboration.

Bio:
Clarice D. Aiello is a quantum engineer interested in how quantum physics informs biology. She is the co-founder of the Quantum Biology Ecosystem, which is bringing about the quantum biology industry by design. The Ecosystem’s research arm, the Quantum Biology Institute, performs basic research underpinning the field in an open-science fashion. Clarice is the preeminent scientist in the field of quantum biology, having given more than 100 talks, incl. for NIH, NSF, NASA, MIT Lincoln Labs, Los Alamos Natl. Labs, and the European Commission. Born and raised in Brazil, Clarice has a Diplome d’Ingenieur in Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in France and an M.Phil. in Physics from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, in England; she received her Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical Engineering. She further held postdoctoral appointments in Bioengineering at Stanford, and in Chemistry at Berkeley. Clarice is writing the first-ever textbook on Quantum Biology.