0:00:01.113,0:00:05.742
I'd like to introduce you [br]to an emerging area of science.

0:00:05.742,0:00:09.843
One that is still speculative,[br]but hugely exciting.

0:00:09.843,0:00:12.338
It's certainly one that's [br]growing very rapidly.

0:00:13.322,0:00:17.188
Quantum biology asks[br]a very simple question.

0:00:17.703,0:00:22.153
Does quantum mechanics, that weird[br]and wonderful, and powerful theory

0:00:22.153,0:00:24.932
of the subatomic world[br]of atoms and molecules

0:00:24.932,0:00:29.523
that underpins so much of modern[br]physics and chemistry, also play

0:00:29.523,0:00:31.805
a role inside the living cell?

0:00:31.945,0:00:37.825
In other words, are there processes,[br]mechanisms, phenomena in living organisms

0:00:38.165,0:00:43.130
that can only be explained with a helping[br]hand from quantum mechanics?

0:00:43.546,0:00:47.584
Now, quantum biology isn't new.[br]It's been around since the early 1930s.

0:00:48.068,0:00:51.743
But its only in the last decade or so,[br]that careful experiments

0:00:51.743,0:00:58.687
in biochemistry labs, using spectroscopy[br]that have shown very clear, firm evidence

0:00:58.855,0:01:03.567
that there are certain specific mechanisms[br]that require quantum mechanics

0:01:03.567,0:01:04.512
to explain them.

0:01:05.824,0:01:09.179
Quantum biology brings together [br]quantum physicists, biochemists,

0:01:09.179,0:01:10.270
molecular biologists.

0:01:10.270,0:01:12.553
It's a very interdisciplinary field.

0:01:12.872,0:01:16.726
I come from quantum physics.[br]So, I'm a nuclear physicist.

0:01:16.726,0:01:21.392
I've spent more than three decades trying [br]to get my head around quantum mechanics.

0:01:21.901,0:01:24.626
One of the founders of quantum [br]mechanics, Neil Bohr said,

0:01:24.626,0:01:27.754
If you're not astonished by it,[br]then you haven't understood it.

0:01:28.310,0:01:32.282
So, I sort of feel happy that I'm still[br]astonished by it and that's a good thing.

0:01:32.753,0:01:39.782
But it means I study the very smallest[br]structures in the universe.

0:01:39.782,0:01:41.881
The building blocks of reality.

0:01:41.881,0:01:46.980
If we think about the scale of size,[br]start with something, an everyday object

0:01:46.980,0:01:50.996
like the tennis ball, and just go down[br]orders of magnitude and size.

0:01:51.112,0:01:56.313
From the eye of a needle, down to a cell,[br]down to a bacterium, down to an enzyme.

0:01:56.313,0:01:57.985
You eventually reach the nano world.

0:01:57.985,0:02:00.423
Now, nanotechnology may [br]be a term you've heard of.

0:02:00.841,0:02:03.952
A nanometer is [br]a billionth of a meter.

0:02:04.692,0:02:08.974
My area is the atomic nucleus,[br]which is the tiny dot inside an atom.

0:02:08.974,0:02:10.911
It's even smaller in scale.

0:02:10.911,0:02:14.981
This is the domain of quantum mechanics,[br]and physicists and chemists have had

0:02:14.981,0:02:16.654
a long time to get used to it.

0:02:17.049,0:02:22.149
Biologists on the other hand[br]have got off lightly, in my view.

0:02:22.184,0:02:26.501
They are very happy with their [br]balls-and-sticks models of molecules.

0:02:26.618,0:02:27.635
(Laughter)

0:02:27.635,0:02:30.663
The balls are the atoms, the sticks[br]are the bonds between the atoms

0:02:30.663,0:02:32.434
and when they can't build them[br]physically in the lab,

0:02:32.434,0:02:37.654
nowadays they have very powerful[br]computers that will simulate a huge model.

0:02:38.071,0:02:41.090
This is a protein made up [br]of 100,000 atoms.

0:02:42.064,0:02:46.268
It doesn't really require much in the way [br]of quantum mechanics to explain it.

0:02:47.659,0:02:51.072
Quantum mechanics was [br]developed in the 1920s.

0:02:51.133,0:02:57.274
It is a set of beautiful and powerful [br]mathematical rules and ideas

0:02:57.669,0:03:00.501
that explain the world[br]of the very small.

0:03:00.501,0:03:03.705
And it's a world that very different[br]from our everyday world

0:03:03.705,0:03:05.222
made up of trillions of atoms.

0:03:05.339,0:03:09.017
It's a world built on probability[br]and chance.

0:03:09.818,0:03:11.341
It's a fuzzy world.

0:03:11.341,0:03:16.222
It's a world of phantoms, where particles[br]can also behave like spread out waves.

0:03:18.157,0:03:21.383
If we imagine quantum mechanics[br]or quantum physics, then as

0:03:21.383,0:03:26.034
the fundamental [br]foundation of reality itself.

0:03:26.423,0:03:29.095
That's not surprising [br]that we say quantum physics

0:03:29.095,0:03:30.570
underpins organic chemistry.

0:03:30.570,0:03:32.787
After all, it gives us[br]the rules that tells us

0:03:32.787,0:03:34.982
how the atoms fit together[br]to make organic molecules.

0:03:35.142,0:03:40.083
Organic chemistry, scaled up in complexity[br]gives us molecular biology,

0:03:40.083,0:03:41.927
which of course leads [br]to life itself.

0:03:42.215,0:03:44.271
So, in a way, it's sort [br]of not surprising.

0:03:44.271,0:03:45.662
It's almost trivial.

0:03:45.833,0:03:49.633
Say, well of course life ultimately[br]must depend of quantum mechanics.

0:03:50.275,0:03:52.668
But, so does everything else.

0:03:52.668,0:03:56.367
So does all inanimate matter, [br]made up of trillions of atoms.

0:03:56.437,0:04:02.276
Ultimately, there's a quantum level[br]that we know where we have to delve

0:04:02.276,0:04:03.610
into this weridness.

0:04:03.610,0:04:06.026
But in everyday life, [br]we can forget about it.

0:04:06.462,0:04:10.832
Because once you put together trillions [br]of atoms, that quantum weirdness

0:04:10.832,0:04:12.388
just dissolves away.

0:04:15.436,0:04:20.490
Quantum biology isn't about this.[br]Quantum biology isn't this obvious.

0:04:20.676,0:04:24.925
Of course quantum mechanics underpins[br]life at some molecular level.

0:04:25.203,0:04:33.169
Quantum biology is about looking[br]for the non-trivial, the counterintuitive

0:04:33.169,0:04:38.974
ideas in quantum mechanics and to see[br]if they do indeed play an important role

0:04:38.974,0:04:41.273
in describing the processes of life.

0:04:42.600,0:04:47.310
Here is my perfect example[br]of the counterintuitiveness

0:04:47.755,0:04:49.459
of the quantum world.

0:04:49.459,0:04:50.760
This is the quantum skiier.

0:04:50.760,0:04:53.378
He seems to be intact, he seems[br]to be perfectly healthy.

0:04:53.378,0:04:57.103
And yet, he seems to have gone around[br]both sides of that tree at the same time.

0:04:57.307,0:05:01.145
Well, if you saw some tracks like that[br]you'd guess some sort of stunts of course.

0:05:01.383,0:05:03.844
But in the quantum world,[br]this happens all the time.

0:05:05.074,0:05:08.023
Particles can multitask, they can be[br]in two places at once.

0:05:08.023,0:05:10.392
They can do more than[br]one thing at the same time.

0:05:10.392,0:05:12.969
Particles can behave[br]like spread out waves.

0:05:13.453,0:05:14.897
It's almost like magic.

0:05:15.538,0:05:19.053
Physicists and chemists have had[br]nearly a century of trying

0:05:19.215,0:05:20.957
to get used to this weirdness.

0:05:21.722,0:05:24.416
I don't blame the biologists for not[br]having or wanting to learn

0:05:24.416,0:05:25.298
quantum mechanics.

0:05:25.358,0:05:31.220
You see, this weirdness is very delicate[br]and we physicists work very hard

0:05:31.220,0:05:33.517
to maintain it on our labs.

0:05:33.564,0:05:37.837
We sort of cool our system down[br]to near absolute zero,

0:05:37.837,0:05:41.158
We carry out our experiments [br]in vacuums, we try and isolate it

0:05:41.158,0:05:42.898
from any external disturbance.

0:05:43.944,0:05:48.680
That's very different from the warm,[br]messy, noisy environment of a living cell.

0:05:50.074,0:05:54.624
Biology itself, if you think of molecular[br]biology, seems to have done very well

0:05:54.624,0:05:57.665
in describing all the processes of life,[br]in terms of chemistry.

0:05:57.689,0:05:58.920
Chemical reactions!

0:05:59.105,0:06:04.307
And these are reductionist, deterministic[br]chemical reactions showing that

0:06:04.307,0:06:08.556
essentially life, is made of the same[br]stuff as everything else,

0:06:08.597,0:06:11.690
and if we can forget about quantum [br]mechanics in the macro world,

0:06:11.969,0:06:15.104
then we should be able to forget [br]about it in biology, as well.

0:06:15.722,0:06:19.282
Well, one man begged [br]to differ with this idea.

0:06:20.062,0:06:24.624
Erwin Schrödinger, he of Schrödinger's Cat[br]fame, an Austrian physicist.

0:06:24.686,0:06:28.144
He was one of the founders[br]of quantum mechanics in the 1920s.

0:06:28.462,0:06:31.590
In 1944, he wrote a book[br]called "What is Life?"

0:06:31.906,0:06:33.681
It was tremendously influential.

0:06:33.681,0:06:35.895
It influenced Francis Crick[br]and James Watson,

0:06:35.908,0:06:38.487
the discoverer's of the double helix[br]structure of DNA.

0:06:39.415,0:06:44.964
To paraphrase a description in the book,[br]he says, at the molecular level,

0:06:44.964,0:06:51.767
living organism have a certain order,[br]a structure to them that's very

0:06:51.767,0:06:56.780
different from the random thermodynamic[br]jostling of atoms and molecules

0:06:56.780,0:07:01.094
in inanimate matter [br]of the same complexity.

0:07:01.504,0:07:06.604
In fact, living matter seems to behave[br]in its order, in its structure

0:07:06.604,0:07:10.644
just like inanimate matter cooled[br]down to near absolute zero,

0:07:10.644,0:07:13.433
where quantum effects [br]play a very important role.

0:07:14.418,0:07:17.564
There's something special about[br]the structure, the order

0:07:18.464,0:07:20.048
inside a living cell.

0:07:20.048,0:07:25.341
So, Schrödinger speculated that maybe[br]quantum mechanics plays a role in life.

0:07:25.899,0:07:30.095
It's a very speculative, sort of[br]far-reaching idea and it didn't

0:07:30.095,0:07:32.610
really go very far.

0:07:33.397,0:07:35.934
But, as I mentioned at the start,[br]in the last 10 years

0:07:35.934,0:07:40.833
there have been experiment emerging,[br]showing where some of these certain

0:07:40.833,0:07:43.681
phenomena in biology, do seem[br]to require quantum mechanics.

0:07:43.681,0:07:46.890
I want to share with you[br]just a few of the exciting ones.

0:07:48.215,0:07:52.276
This is one of the best known [br]phenomena in the quantum world.

0:07:52.276,0:07:53.646
Quantum tunneling.

0:07:53.941,0:07:59.334
The box on the left, shows the wavelike[br]spread out distribution of quantum entity.

0:07:59.340,0:08:00.844
A particle, like an electron.

0:08:01.046,0:08:03.970
Which is not a little ball [br]bouncing off a wall.

0:08:04.530,0:08:09.610
It's a wave that has a certain probability[br]of being able to permeate through

0:08:09.610,0:08:12.787
a solid wall, like a phantom [br]leaping through to the other side.

0:08:12.787,0:08:16.742
You can see a faint smudge of light[br]in the right hand box.

0:08:17.502,0:08:22.838
Quantum tunneling suggests that a particle[br]can hit an impenetrable barrier and yet,

0:08:22.874,0:08:27.100
somehow, as if by magic, disappear from[br]one side and reappear on the other.

0:08:27.425,0:08:31.976
The nicest way of explaining it,[br]is if you want to throw a ball

0:08:31.976,0:08:35.786
over a wall, you have to give it enough[br]energy to get over the top of the wall.

0:08:35.808,0:08:38.874
In the quantum world, you don't have[br]to throw it over the wall.

0:08:38.874,0:08:42.735
You can throw it at the wall and three's[br]a certain non-zero probability that it'll

0:08:42.735,0:08:45.187
disappear on your side,[br]and reappear on the other.

0:08:45.194,0:08:49.023
This isn't speculation, [br]by the way, we're happy

0:08:49.023,0:08:51.050
-- I'm sorry, happy is not the right word.

0:08:51.410,0:08:52.540
(Laughter)

0:08:52.681,0:08:54.502
We are familiar with this.

0:08:54.688,0:08:55.617
(Laughter)

0:08:56.725,0:09:00.763
Quantum tunneling takes place [br]all the time, in fact

0:09:00.763,0:09:03.093
it's the reason our sun shines.

0:09:03.093,0:09:06.394
The particles fuse together in the sun[br]is turning hydrogen into helium

0:09:06.394,0:09:08.019
through quantum tunneling.

0:09:09.554,0:09:14.708
Back in the 70s and 80s, it was discovered[br]that quantum tunneling also takes place

0:09:14.708,0:09:16.468
inside living cells.

0:09:16.596,0:09:22.713
Enzymes, those workhorses of life,[br]the catalysts of chemical reaction.

0:09:22.806,0:09:26.828
Enzymes are biomolecules that speed[br]up chemical reactions in living cells.

0:09:26.828,0:09:28.673
By many, many orders of magnitude.

0:09:28.673,0:09:31.281
And it's always been a mystery[br]how they do this.

0:09:31.688,0:09:36.246
Well, it was discovered that one[br]of the tricks that enzymes have evolved

0:09:36.246,0:09:41.850
to make use of, is by transferring[br]subatomic particles, like electrons

0:09:41.850,0:09:46.614
and indeed protons, from one part[br]of a molecule to another via

0:09:46.614,0:09:48.347
quantum tunneling.

0:09:48.449,0:09:50.792
It's efficient, it's fast, [br]it can disappear

0:09:50.792,0:09:54.054
-- a proton can disappear from one place[br]and a reappear on the other.

0:09:54.054,0:09:56.221
Enzymes help this take place.

0:09:56.602,0:10:01.257
This is research that's been carried out[br]back in the 80s, particularly by a group

0:10:01.257,0:10:03.533
in Berkeley, Judith Klinman.

0:10:03.533,0:10:07.129
Other groups in the UK have now also[br]confirmed that enzymes really do this.

0:10:09.286,0:10:14.130
Research carried out by my group[br]-- so I mentioned I'm a nuclear physicist,

0:10:14.130,0:10:17.158
but I've realize I've got these tools[br]of using quantum mechanics

0:10:17.158,0:10:22.243
in atomic nuclei and so can apply those[br]tools in other areas, as well.

0:10:23.566,0:10:27.885
One question we asked was, whether [br]quantum tunneling plays a role

0:10:27.885,0:10:29.626
in mutations in DNA.

0:10:29.720,0:10:33.170
Again, this is not a new idea.[br]It goes all the way back to the early 60s.

0:10:33.527,0:10:37.962
The two strands of DNA, the double helix [br]structure are held together by rungs,

0:10:37.962,0:10:39.401
it's like a twisted ladder.

0:10:39.602,0:10:42.970
And those rungs of the ladder[br]are hydrogen bonds.

0:10:42.970,0:10:46.460
Protons that act as the glue[br]between the two strands.

0:10:46.704,0:10:51.453
So, if you zoom in, what they're doing[br]is holding these large molecules,

0:10:51.685,0:10:53.333
nucleotides, together.

0:10:54.378,0:10:55.304
Zoom in a bit more.

0:10:55.304,0:10:57.514
So, this a computer simulation.

0:10:58.115,0:11:02.690
The two white balls in the middle[br]are protons and you can see that

0:11:02.690,0:11:03.968
it's a double hydrogen bond.

0:11:04.176,0:11:08.003
One prefers to sit one side, [br]the other on the other side of the stands.

0:11:08.003,0:11:11.719
The two strands of the vertical lines[br]going down, which you can't see.

0:11:12.652,0:11:15.646
It can happen that these [br]two protons can hop over.

0:11:15.775,0:11:19.327
Watch the two white balls.[br]They can jump over to the other side.

0:11:20.336,0:11:25.909
If the two strands then separate,[br]leading to the process of replication,

0:11:25.909,0:11:31.069
and the two protons are in the wrong[br]positions, this can lead to a mutation.

0:11:31.109,0:11:32.986
This has been known for half a century.

0:11:32.986,0:11:38.129
The question is how likely can they do [br]that, and if they do, how do they do it?

0:11:38.196,0:11:40.886
Do they jump across, like the ball[br]going over the wall?

0:11:40.912,0:11:44.414
Or can they quantum tunnel across,[br]even if they don't have enough energy?

0:11:45.089,0:11:49.407
Early indications suggest that quantum[br]tunneling can play a role here.

0:11:49.570,0:11:53.181
We still don't know yet how important[br]it is, it's still an open question.

0:11:53.332,0:11:57.603
It's speculative, but it's one of those [br]questions that it is so important,

0:11:57.603,0:12:01.224
that if quantum mechanics plays[br]a role in mutations, surely this must

0:12:01.224,0:12:06.078
have big implications, to understand[br]certain types of mutations, possibly even

0:12:06.265,0:12:09.307
those that lead to turning [br]a cell cancerous.

0:12:10.515,0:12:16.341
Another example of quantum mechanics[br]in biology is quantum coherence

0:12:16.341,0:12:19.545
in one of the most important process[br]in biology, photosynthesis.

0:12:20.002,0:12:25.398
Plants and bacteria taking sunlight,[br]using that energy to create biomass.

0:12:26.116,0:12:30.367
Quantum coherence is the idea[br]of quantum entities multitasking.

0:12:30.912,0:12:32.540
It's the quantum skier.

0:12:32.540,0:12:37.053
It's an object that behaves like a wave,[br]so that it doesn't just move

0:12:37.053,0:12:41.767
in one direction or the other, but can[br]follow multiple pathways at the same time.

0:12:42.708,0:12:48.478
Some years ago, the world of science[br]was shocked when a paper was published

0:12:48.722,0:12:52.285
showing experimental evidence,[br]that quantum coherence takes place

0:12:52.357,0:12:55.536
inside bacteria, [br]carrying out photosynthesis.

0:12:55.621,0:12:58.996
The idea is that the photon, [br]the particle of light, the sunlight,

0:12:59.031,0:13:03.094
the quantum of light, captured by [br]a chlorophyl molecule, is then delivered

0:13:03.094,0:13:06.910
to what's called the reaction center where[br]it can be turned into chemical energy.

0:13:06.910,0:13:10.638
And in getting there, it doesn't just[br]follow one root, it follows multiple

0:13:10.638,0:13:15.576
pathways at once, to optimize the most[br]efficient way of reaching the reaction

0:13:15.576,0:13:18.245
center, without dissipating [br]as waste heat.

0:13:19.228,0:13:22.470
Quantum coherence taking place[br]inside a living cell.

0:13:22.561,0:13:30.111
A remarkable idea, and yet evidence[br]is growing almost weekly with new papers

0:13:30.111,0:13:33.267
coming out, confirming that [br]this does indeed take place.

0:13:33.555,0:13:38.557
My third and final example is the most[br]beautiful, wonderful idea.

0:13:38.557,0:13:42.665
It's also still a very speculative,[br]but I have to share it with you.

0:13:42.665,0:13:48.441
The European Robin migrates from[br]Scandinavia, down to the Mediterranean

0:13:48.441,0:13:52.934
every autumn and like a lot of other[br]marine animals and even insects,

0:13:52.934,0:13:57.694
they navigate by sensing [br]the Earth's magnetic field.

0:13:58.948,0:14:01.340
Now the Earth's magnetic [br]field is very, very weak.

0:14:01.340,0:14:03.885
It's 100 times weaker than[br]a fridge magnet and yet

0:14:03.894,0:14:09.560
it affects the chemistry, somehow,[br]within a living organism.

0:14:09.933,0:14:13.436
That's not in doubt, [br]a German couple of onothologists

0:14:13.762,0:14:18.046
Wolfgang and Roswitha Wiltschko,[br]in the 1970s confirmed that indeed

0:14:18.046,0:14:21.869
the robin does find it's way by somehow[br]sensing the Earth's magnetic field,

0:14:21.954,0:14:25.367
to give it directional information,[br]a built-in compass.

0:14:25.398,0:14:27.647
The puzzle, the mystery was[br]how does it do it?

0:14:28.351,0:14:32.847
Well, the only theory in town,[br]we don't know if it's the correct theory,

0:14:32.847,0:14:36.076
but the only theory in town, is that[br]it does it via something called

0:14:36.076,0:14:37.929
quantum entanglement.

0:14:38.480,0:14:42.202
Inside the robin's retina[br]-- I kid you not.

0:14:42.202,0:14:45.368
Inside the robin's retina, [br]is a protein called cryptochrome,

0:14:45.368,0:14:46.624
which is light sensitive.

0:14:46.624,0:14:50.887
Within cryptochrome, a pair of electrons[br]are quantum entangled.

0:14:50.887,0:14:54.623
Now quantum entanglement is when two[br]particles are far apart and yet somehow

0:14:54.623,0:14:56.678
remain in contact with each other.

0:14:56.921,0:15:00.109
Even Einstein hated that idea, he called[br]it spooky action at a distance.

0:15:00.479,0:15:01.749
(Laughter)

0:15:02.429,0:15:05.764
If Einstein doesn't like it, then we can[br]all be uncomfortable with it.

0:15:05.764,0:15:10.269
Two quantum entangled electrons within[br]a single molecule, dance a delicate dance

0:15:10.269,0:15:12.916
that is very sensitive [br]to the direction the bird flies

0:15:12.916,0:15:14.472
in the Earth's magnetic field.

0:15:15.043,0:15:19.504
We don't know if it's the correct[br]explanation, but wow wouldn't it be

0:15:19.504,0:15:22.026
exciting if quantum mechanics[br]helps birds navigate.

0:15:22.816,0:15:29.619
Quantum biology is still in it infancy.[br]It's still speculative.

0:15:29.847,0:15:33.984
But I believe it's built on solid science.

0:15:34.040,0:15:39.115
I also think that in the coming decade,[br]or so, we're going to start to see

0:15:39.572,0:15:45.586
that actually it pervades life, that life[br]has evolved tricks that utilize

0:15:45.901,0:15:47.730
the quantum world.

0:15:48.026,0:15:49.402
Watch this space.

0:15:49.685,0:15:50.470
Thank you.

0:15:50.818,0:15:52.861
(Applause)