by Amara Graps
It’s a field that has been active for ~100 years, but like wave phenomena on a beach, it ebbs and flows. Today it is called an ‘emerging field’. The scientists work across disciplines, make discoveries out of the spotlight, and utilize the latest tools of quantum physics. As the tools improve, the conclusions become firmer.
According to current studies, quantum mechanics plays a role in many biological functions, including respiration, photosynthesis, olfaction, enzyme activity, avian navigation, mutation, and may even play a role in human brain function. The study of these quantum foundations of biology is known as Quantum Biology. However, the devil is in the details.
Technology-made Quantum Sensors
Many people first become familiar with the adjacent field of [technology-made] quantum sensors. These sensors have been working successfully on a number of platforms, which I’ll describe further in Part 2. This 2019 workshop, Today’s Noise Tomorrow’s Signal, with its Abstract Book (pdf), will help people in our deep-tech community, who are unaware of the triumphs of quantum sensors, understand that technology-based, quantum sensors are mature, and can study non-invasively a range of living biological material, including of plant-life. My favorite example is the research that probed the magnetic fields of the Venus Fly-Trap,
As the workshop demonstrated, the fields probed look noisy or too small to be significant. That’s the warm, messy, wet realm, in which Quantum Biology lives. Yes, such non-pristine conditions are a surprise.
Nature-made Quantum Sensors
Dr. Clarice Aiello is an Electrical Engineer and Quantum Biology researcher who took the career path from developing technology-made quantum sensors to probing nature-made, quantum sensors. Yuval Boger interviewed her on his podcast: “Superposition Guy”, which we described and presented their transcribed interview in a QCR article last year here.
Aiello said that at some point, she realized that nature itself was producing sensors that outperform [technology]-made sensors, and that some of those sensors are operating in the quantum realm. ‘Poster examples’, as she called them, are the processes of photosynthesis and avian navigation.
Aiello has since formed the Quantum Biology Institute in Los Angeles, where she is the Chief Scientific Officer. The Institute’s mandate is to confirm or refute the Quantum Biology Hypothesis, which is that quantum states last for long enough inside cells to be biologically relevant. In particular, the Institute studies the quantum property of spin in biological matter. The Institute has a RoadMap, color-coded to Research, Community, and Industry, a discord channel for the community, a 25-page Google Docs tracker of the effects of a hypomagnetic field on biological matter, and research results.
The Institute’s most recent result demonstrated, in a 250-page paper by Lodesani et al., 2024, that a well-engineered, environmentally-calibrated, hypomagnetic field of less than 1 nT, accelerated the embryo development of the Xenopus laevis (frog tadpoles). The findings suggest that the physiology of basal tadpoles may detect and respond to the loss of Earth’s tiny magnetic field, which is about 50 µT. Numerous statistical measurements show that the effect is significant. Of Aiello’s near-future goals:
“In five years, I would like to be able to either establish or refute down to a quantifiable noise level the extent to which spin phenomena, or weak magnetic field related to spin phenomena, can alter cellular function, either saying yes, we can see that it’s the spin doing this, or saying no, down to this noise level that is measurable, we don’t think it’s causal.”
Quantum Biology Curated
I started to make a list of the Quantum Biology institutes worldwide, then discovered that The Guy Foundation, which facilitates and funds Quantum Biology research, has already curated such a list. They track Quantum Biology meetings, and additionally write a quarterly Newsletter (most recent: here).
Last year saw an inaugural 2023 Gordon conference on Quantum Biology. In 2025, there will be the second Gordon Quantum Biology conference.
There is a popular science book: Life on the Edge by McFadden and Al-Khalili and a text: Quantum Electrodynamics of Photosynthesis (preview Front Matter) by Artur Braun.
In 2020, some very good Quantum Biology videos were made. See the Part 1 (photosynthesis), Part 2 (enzymes) and Part 3 (avian navigation). Additionally, the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) facilitated a very good online lecture: The Renaissance of Quantum Biology by K. Birgitta Whaley (UC Berkeley).
Technologically-Made Quantum Sensors Again
The main tools for probing nature-made, quantum sensors are technologically-made, quantum sensors.
Amongst the Tadpoles’ experiment’s instrumentation is a sensitive magnetometer: a tri-axial optically-pumped magnetometer (OPM): QuSpin QZFM, which measured the magnetic field inside of the hypomagnetic chamber.
GQI’s Quantum Magnetometers Compared
To help the wider ecosystem track and foresee the commercial potential of quantum sensors, the strategies that will be necessary to bring them to market, and the funding milestones that will have to be passed, GQI has defined the quantum sensing stack and compared sensor capabilities.
The operational principles of each type of Magnetometer is explained, compared and summarized in the next Table. The acronyms are: ESL = Engineering Severity Level, SWaP = Size Weight and Power, OPM = Optically Pumped Magnetometer, Tip in NV Diamond is etched from high quality single crystal diamond, HTS= high temperature superconductivity, and SERF=spin exchange relaxation-free regime.
| Sensitivity | Spatial resolution | ESL | SWaP | |
| SQUID | ✔✔✔ | ✔✔ | ╳ | ╳ |
| SQUID (HTS) | ✔✔ | ✔ | ✔✔ | ✔ |
| NV Diamond (Tip) | ✔ | ✔✔✔ | ✔✔ | ✔✔ |
| NV Diamond (Bulk) | ✔ | ✔✔ | ✔✔✔ | ✔✔✔ |
| OPM | ✔✔ | ✔✔ | ✔✔ | ✔✔ |
| OPM (SERF) | ✔✔✔ | ✔✔ | ✔ | ✔✔ |
(*) GQI’s Quantum Sensing Outlook Report (*), is a 114-page report on Sensors, including five pages about the quantum sensors to measure magnetic fields, and nine pages on quantum sensors for timing (clocks). GQI also has a 48-Slide “State of Play” for Quantum Sensing State of Play. It is one of six presentation slide-decks for customers which describe the State of Play in various sectors: Quantum Technology Introduction, Quantum Hardware, Quantum Safe, Quantum Sensing, Imaging, and Times, Quantum Software, and Quantum Landscape. If you are interested to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].
October 29, 2024
