| Quantum biochemistry |
| Biology |
| Life cycles (Biology) |
| Biochemistry, Quantum |
| Biology, Quantum |
| Quantum biology |
| Cycles, Life (Biology) |
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Summary
Summary
New York Times Bestseller and an Amazon Best Science Book of 2015 , Life on the Edge alters our understanding of our world's fundamental dynamics through the use of quantum mechanics
Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how did it come to be? Even in an age of cloning and artificial biology, the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we still missing a vital ingredient in its creation?
Using first-hand experience at the cutting edge of science, Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe Macfadden reveal that missing ingredient to be quantum mechanics. Drawing on recent ground-breaking experiments around the world, each chapter in Life on the Edge illustrates one of life's puzzles: How do migrating birds know where to go? How do we really smell the scent of a rose? How do our genes copy themselves with such precision? Life on the Edge accessibly reveals how quantum mechanics can answer these probing questions of the universe.
Guiding the reader through the rapidly unfolding discoveries of the last few years, Al-Khalili and McFadden describe the explosive new field of quantum biology and its potentially revolutionary applications, while offering insights into the biggest puzzle of all: what is life? As they brilliantly demonstrate in these groundbreaking pages, life exists on the quantum edge.
- Winner, Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
It is a challenging task to find ways to bridge two highly technical disciplines for the general reader, but McFadden, a molecular geneticist, and Al-Khalili, a theoretical physicist, attempt it with some success, using the principles of quantum mechanics to explain the intricacies of molecular biology. As the authors note, "quantum mechanics is utterly counterintuitive," so bringing readers to the point where they can understand the topic well enough to appreciate how it might be applied to biological problems is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, McFadden and Al-Khalili find ways to present the results of some recent scientific studies so as to make the case that quantum mechanics likely plays a role in biological topics as diverse as enzymatic reactions, olfaction, and animal migration. They get a bit more speculative when they posit that such interactions may be responsible for many genetic mutations, consciousness, and the origin of life. They pay particular attention to Erwin Schrödinger's 1944 book, What Is Life, claiming that many of the ideas set forth in that slim volume were both correct and essential for our current understanding of biology. However, most biologists and historians of biology disagree with the latter assertion. Until more experimentation catches up with the speculation offered, McFadden and Khalili's interesting ideas are unlikely to be persuasive. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh Literary Agency. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* How can a force as weak as the earth's magnetic field guide migrating birds? In recounting how deep-probing scientists answered this question, McFadden and Al-Khalili draw readers into a revolutionary new paradigm in which scientific understanding of living systems is grounded in the same quantum mechanics long relied on by physicists. To help general readers grasp the counterintuitive principles of quantum theory, the authors develop illuminating analogies (making a jewel thief on parole, for instance, a stand-in for an elusive electron). They then set about showing how these strange principles (Einstein called them spooky) are helping scientists probe biological enigmas. Readers see, for example, how quantum entanglement accounts for birds' magnetic compass, how quantum tunneling makes enzymes work, and how a quantum random walk drives photosynthesis. Readers soon realize just how completely quantum phenomena pervade the plant and animal worlds. Skating into conjecture, the authors even propose that in the power of living organisms to amplify subatomic quantum events, we see the very essence of life. Just as speculative are the authors' suggestions as to how quantum superimposition may explain both how life originated and how life developed its most mystifying manifestation consciousness. An intellectually exhilarating visit to the baffling frontiers of science!--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2015 Booklist
Choice Review
Life on the Edge explores the idea that quantum physics plays a direct role in some biological processes. Each chapter of the book explores a different area of biology where quantum theory might produce new insights. Topics covered include quantum tunneling in enzymatic reactions, quantum walks in chlorophyll, a possible quantum basis for olfaction, magnetoreception in various species, electromagnetic field theories of consciousness, and the formation of the first self-replicating molecule. Geneticist McFadden and theoretical physicist Al-Khalili (both, Univ. of Surrey, UK) explain the basic concepts of quantum mechanics as they are needed, providing a unifying, underlying theoretical basis for a diverse set of topics in modern biology. The frequent use of analogies combined with a nice historical perspective makes the discussion accessible. Although the book could be read by an interested layperson, the target reader is probably someone who has some background in either the physical or life sciences. The application of quantum physics to some of the topics discussed is highly speculative. Nevertheless, Life on the Edge would make a good foundation for an interdisciplinary undergraduate course or seminar, and offers stimulating reading for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in the sciences. M. C. Ogilvie wrote this review in collaboration with J. M. Ogilvie, St. Louis University. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners. --Michael C. Ogilvie, Washington University
Kirkus Review
Notes toward an understanding of quantum mechanics' part in biological processes. For readers who are not quantum physicists, let us take solace from Niels Bohr ("Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it") and Richard Feynman ("If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics"). McFadden (Molecular Genetics/Univ. of Surrey; Quantum Evolution: How Physics' Weirdest Theory Explains Life's Biggest Mystery, 2002, etc.) and Al-Khalili (Theoretical Physics/Univ. of Surrey; Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics, 2012, etc.) deliver a book that can be approached with healthy openness to entertain the mind-bending applications of quantum theory to biology suggested here. Borderlands are always mysterious places, and none more so than that between the classical and quantum worlds, though the authors note that there has been enough experimentation for us to entertain the role of quantum properties in the kindling of life and subsequent behavioral components. They begin with how the act of measurement erases so many of the spooky quantum states: particles being two things at once, being in more than one place at a time, and entangled with subatomic partners so that even at great distances they influence one another, tunneling through the impermeable. In each chapter, the authors tackle a particular issue, but they also range freely to introduce topicswaves and lumps, decoherence, the kinetic isotope effect, enzyme reactionsthat exhibit quantum behavior, while not suggesting that quantum theory explains everything. The elemental provocation of the book lies in the authors' ability to make the complex conceivable. When they write, "photosynthetic systems were indeed implementing a quantum search strategy," and thus "the origin of life could similarly involve some kind of search scenario," readers can question it intelligently. McFadden and Al-Khalili give sure footing to the anything-goes bafflement of quantum theory, making it approachable even for neophytes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
McFadden (molecular genetics, Univ. of Surrey; Quantum Evolution) and Al-Khalili (theoretical physics, Univ. of Surrey; Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines) introduce quantum biology to a lay audience. They provide a basic introduction to the subject, explaining that quantum mechanics operates within living beings at the submolecular level, dictating the movement of protons and electrons within the atoms that comprise a plant or animal. The authors then discuss how recent research has applied quantum physics to life processes as varied as bird migration, the sense of smell, genetic mutation, and how tadpoles lose their tails. The authors use everyday objects and activities to describe complex theories, such as comparing Schrödinger's wave function to the problem of locating a recidivist burglar. They explore the possibility of quantum involvement in consciousness and in the initial creation of life on Earth. The concepts are challenging but made accessible to nonscientists. VERDICT Of interest to readers curious about the inner workings of life; suitable for public and undergraduate academic libraries.-Rachel Owens, -Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| 1 Introduction | p. 1 |
| 2 What is life? | p. 24 |
| 3 The engines of life | p. 59 |
| 4 The quantum beat | p. 100 |
| 5 Finding Nemo's home | p. 133 |
| 6 The butterfly, the fruit fly and the quantum robin | p. 166 |
| 7 Quantum genes | p. 196 |
| 8 Mind | p. 231 |
| 9 How life began | p. 265 |
| 10 Quantum biology: life on the edge of a storm | p. 289 |
| Epilogue: quantum life | p. 324 |
| Notes | p. 327 |
| Index | p. 339 |