Biology Reference
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of the
matter-symbol complementarity
advocated by Pattee (1996, 2001, 2008),
which has alternatively been referred to as the
von Neumann-Pattee principle of
matter-sign complementarity
(Ji 1999b). It is tempting to suggest that Statement
11.32 and similar generalizations be referred to as the
First Law of Biology
(FLB) in
analogy to
First Law of Thermodynamics
. The so-called PCS (physics, chemistry,
and semiotics) paradigm that is emerging in biology as discussed in Ji (2002a) and
Barbieri (2003, 2008a, b, c) may also be viewed as an expression of FLB.
If FLB is true, it may provide a possible answer to the question raised by
Frauenfelder in “Plenary Debate: Quantum Effects in Biology: Trivial or Not?”
(Abbott et al. 2009):
If we find a general law that determines or explains life, is it quantum mechanical or
classical? (11.33)
If we assume that both quantum mechanics and classical mechanics have
synchronic
and
diachronic
aspects and that FLB indeed represents a general law
of biology, applying Eq.
11.31
to the Question 11.33 would lead to the following
answer:
The general laws of life are compatible with both quantum mechanics and classical
mechanics.
(11.34)
In the thought-provoking debate reported in (Abbott et al. 2009), several
participants raised questions of the same type as (11.33), namely, “Is it A or B?,”
when the most likely answer is “Both A and B.” For convenience, we may refer to
such questions as the
Frauenfelder questions
. In a less obvious way, the title
question itself of the Gran Canaria Debate “Quantum Effects in Biology: Trivial
or Not?” may be viewed as a
Frauenfelderian question
, and one possible answer to
it may be stated as follows:
Quantum effects in biology are both trivial and non-trivial, depending on the time and
spatial scales involved. (11.35)
More specifically, since the spatiotemporal scales involved here are most likely
related to quantum mechanical tunneling, the following generalization may be
made:
Quantum effects in biology are fundamental below the critical threshold of the space and
time scales where quantum mechanical tunneling occurs and trivial above this threshold.
(11.36)
A specific example of quantum mechanical tunneling playing an essential role in
enzymology is provided by the electron transfer reaction between an electron
donor, AH
2
, and an electron acceptor, B, when they are brought close enough to
each other through thermal fluctuations for the electron tunneling to occur (see b in
Fig.
8.1
).
Statement 11.36 can be viewed as an extension of the concept of the
thermal
barrier
that separates macroscopic and molecular machines (Ji 1991, pp. 29-35) to
the concept of what is here called the
quantum barrier
that separates molecule
machines and quons (Herbert 1987) (i.e., the material entities that exhibit the
