Abstract

AMADOR BEDOLLA, Carlos  and  ASPURU GUZIK, Alán. Quantum biology: a new field of chemistry?. Educ. quím [online]. 2011, vol.22, n.1, pp.8-11. ISSN 0187-893X.

Over the past century quantum mechanics has been widely applied in the understanding of several physical phenomena. In chemistry, particularly, quantum mechanics have been fundamental for confirmation of chemical insights, and for the description, rationalization and prediction of lots of chemical details. However, and notwithstanding some early speculations, mainstream thinking pointed to the idea that quantum effects are not directly responsible for the description of chemical phenomena involved in life, favoring application of classical mechanics to effectively describe dynamic properties of proteins, dna, cell membranes, for example. Recent experimental and theoretical developments show that quantum effects are essential in a few fundamental chemical biology processes. In this paper we present a description of these findings in the study of photosynthesis.

Keywords : Quantum biology; photosynthesis; green sulfur bacteria; quantum coherence; open quantum systems; femtochemistry.

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