Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
biological methods, through the focusing of a battery of different techniques on
the same biological target, for a more integral characterization of the biological
systems. Neural resonance and oscillations in the brain are very interesting
phenomena and acoustic and electromagnetic vibrational fields of high
resolution appear to be an ideal method for their study. The neuron is a
naturally oscillatory circuit exhibiting resonant behavior due to the capacity
and resistivity of the membrane and the conductivities of the ionic channels
which determine its frequency-dependent properties.
The exact mechanism of neural oscillation and resonance is still unclear. It is
certainly related to brain rhythms and their associated behavior. Biology is
based in part on the movement of electrons, which are quantum entities that
behave far more strangely that it is currently assumed. For example, contem-
porary calculations do not explain how adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in
mitochondria moves electrons at such great speed along chains of intermediate
molecules. Does this reflect quantum tunneling behavior? Is the process related
to the vibratory nature of physiological sensing mechanisms? Scientists are
intrigued by the vibratory nature of the universe from pulsating supernovae
down to molecular and subatomic phenomena. Ultimately, everything has a
quantum nature. The eye constructs color starting from vibratory frequencies
of light by recognizing the characteristic frequencies at which certain molecules
vibrate, thereby constructing a catalog of colors. The smell receptors
discriminate over 100 000 odors when theoretically only 400 would be distin-
guished based on the molecular conformation of molecules. Is the mechanism
for vibrational sensing based on quantum phenomena such as electron
tunneling? Are detection methods based on vibrational fields capable of
assisting the budding science called quantum biology? We hope that such
advanced research in biology will have as side effects amazing applications such
as better drugs, high eciency solar cells and superfast quantum computers,
while deciphering the quantum basis of biological processes and life itself. Life
has a quantum basis which is not yet understood and quantum biology illus-
trates the efforts to apply the quantum physics in biology, 100 years after the
physical reality revealed its fundamentally quantum nature.
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