Albatrossity2
Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007
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| Quote (Thought Provoker @ Mar. 15 2010,16:56) | OH MY GOD!!!!!
(I ask forgiveness from the atheists in the room)
From the DARPA solicitation Albatrossity2 mentioned...
| Quote | Recent research on biological sensor systems such as photosynthesis, magnetoreception, and olfaction, has uncovered tantalizing evidence that they operate using “manifestly” quantum effects. The Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex forms a portion of the photosynthetic apparatus of purple bacteria. It was shown that at low temperatures and upon photon absorption, the excitons in the FMO complex migrate via quantum coherence. Recent evidence indicates that this coherence still exists at physiological temperatures. Whether it is of biological relevance is still an unanswered question. One of the prevailing theories for magnetoreception in birds invokes long-lived interconverting singlet/triplet excited states of the cryptochrome protein. There is strong evidence that the cryptochrome is involved in the magnetoreception in insects but the nature and mechanism of that involvement has not been fully established. Finally, it has been speculated that odor receptors use phonon-assisted tunneling to sense the vibrational spectra of odorants.
For the purposes of this BAA, “manifestly” quantum effects are defined as those that are intrinsically quantum mechanical in nature, and novel and surprising for a biological system to exhibit. Examples include quantum coherence, superposition, the quantum Zeno effect, and entanglement. Excluded are expected effects such as chemical bonding involving orbitals or van der Waals forces. |
The funny thing is that I'm a part owner of a small engineering company that has been subcontracted on a successful DARPA project in the past.
Except for the fact we have no relevant experience in Quantum Mechanics or Biological Engineering it is right up our ally </sarcasm>
I guess I could see if a team could use some data acquisition and computer modeling experts.
I will have to look into this.
Albatrossity2, I don't know whether to thank you or curse you.
I guess I can do both.
Thank you (I reserve the right to curse you later). |
You're welcome, for now.
I reserve the right to recurse you 
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Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
- Pattiann Rogers
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