Life on the Edge

May 25, 2015
It is a challenging task to find ways to bridge two highly technical disciplines for the general reader, but McFadden, a molecular geneticist, and Al-Khalili, a theoretical physicist, attempt it with some success, using the principles of quantum mechanics to explain the intricacies of molecular biology. As the authors note, “quantum mechanics is utterly counterintuitive,” so bringing readers to the point where they can understand the topic well enough to appreciate how it might be applied to biological problems is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, McFadden and Al-Khalili find ways to present the results of some recent scientific studies so as to make the case that quantum mechanics likely plays a role in biological topics as diverse as enzymatic reactions, olfaction, and animal migration. They get a bit more speculative when they posit that such interactions may be responsible for many genetic mutations, consciousness, and the origin of life. They pay particular attention to Erwin Schrödinger’s 1944 book, What Is Life, claiming that many of the ideas set forth in that slim volume were both correct and essential for our current understanding of biology. However, most biologists and historians of biology disagree with the latter assertion. Until more experimentation catches up with the speculation offered, McFadden and Khalili’s interesting ideas are unlikely to be persuasive. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville & Walsh Literary Agency.

May 15, 2015
Notes toward an understanding of quantum mechanics' part in biological processes. For readers who are not quantum physicists, let us take solace from Niels Bohr ("Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it") and Richard Feynman ("If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics"). McFadden (Molecular Genetics/Univ. of Surrey; Quantum Evolution: How Physics' Weirdest Theory Explains Life's Biggest Mystery, 2002, etc.) and Al-Khalili (Theoretical Physics/Univ. of Surrey; Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics, 2012, etc.) deliver a book that can be approached with healthy openness to entertain the mind-bending applications of quantum theory to biology suggested here. Borderlands are always mysterious places, and none more so than that between the classical and quantum worlds, though the authors note that there has been enough experimentation for us to entertain the role of quantum properties in the kindling of life and subsequent behavioral components. They begin with how the act of measurement erases so many of the spooky quantum states: particles being two things at once, being in more than one place at a time, and entangled with subatomic partners so that even at great distances they influence one another, tunneling through the impermeable. In each chapter, the authors tackle a particular issue, but they also range freely to introduce topics-waves and lumps, decoherence, the kinetic isotope effect, enzyme reactions-that exhibit quantum behavior, while not suggesting that quantum theory explains everything. The elemental provocation of the book lies in the authors' ability to make the complex conceivable. When they write, "photosynthetic systems were indeed implementing a quantum search strategy," and thus "the origin of life could similarly involve some kind of search scenario," readers can question it intelligently. McFadden and Al-Khalili give sure footing to the anything-goes bafflement of quantum theory, making it approachable even for neophytes.

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August 1, 2015

McFadden (molecular genetics, Univ. of Surrey; Quantum Evolution) and Al-Khalili (theoretical physics, Univ. of Surrey; Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines) introduce quantum biology to a lay audience. They provide a basic introduction to the subject, explaining that quantum mechanics operates within living beings at the submolecular level, dictating the movement of protons and electrons within the atoms that comprise a plant or animal. The authors then discuss how recent research has applied quantum physics to life processes as varied as bird migration, the sense of smell, genetic mutation, and how tadpoles lose their tails. The authors use everyday objects and activities to describe complex theories, such as comparing Schrodinger's wave function to the problem of locating a recidivist burglar. They explore the possibility of quantum involvement in consciousness and in the initial creation of life on Earth. The concepts are challenging but made accessible to nonscientists. VERDICT Of interest to readers curious about the inner workings of life; suitable for public and undergraduate academic libraries.--Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2015
How can a force as weak as the earth's magnetic field guide migrating birds? In recounting how deep-probing scientists answered this question, McFadden and Al-Khalili draw readers into a revolutionary new paradigm in which scientific understanding of living systems is grounded in the same quantum mechanics long relied on by physicists. To help general readers grasp the counterintuitive principles of quantum theory, the authors develop illuminating analogies (making a jewel thief on parole, for instance, a stand-in for an elusive electron). They then set about showing how these strange principles (Einstein called them spooky ) are helping scientists probe biological enigmas. Readers see, for example, how quantum entanglement accounts for birds' magnetic compass, how quantum tunneling makes enzymes work, and how a quantum random walk drives photosynthesis. Readers soon realize just how completely quantum phenomena pervade the plant and animal worlds. Skating into conjecture, the authors even propose that in the power of living organisms to amplify subatomic quantum events, we see the very essence of life. Just as speculative are the authors' suggestions as to how quantum superimposition may explain both how life originated and how life developed its most mystifying manifestationconsciousness. An intellectually exhilarating visit to the baffling frontiers of science!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)