Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology

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quantropy
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Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology

Postby quantropy » Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:06 am

I'm interested in protein folding and similar topics - the processes which form the basis of life on the microscale - and one of the important features of algorithms used is that they almost entirely use classical physics. Quantum theory must underlie the choice of forces, but it doesn't seem to be needed in doing the calculations. And thank goodness, quantum theory soon leads to intractable calculations, to say nothing about the'does the moon really exist' nonsense that you can get into.
Now this book seems to be claiming that quantum theory is vital in understanding life on the microscale. This seems to go against my understanding of what is going on, so I'm eager to find out more. Is quantum theory ubiquitous, or just involved in a few processes? Is quantum tunnelling important? (I sometimes think this may be relevant to protein folding). I'll read this book with a critical eye.

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