Quantum Biology: Unraveling Known and Unknown Quantum Mechanisms Underlying Life

CarmineCoyote

Quantum biology is a new field that covers a vast territory of unexplored phenomena. The biophysical processes that are used by biological systems have been shown to utilize a number of quantum mechanical effects, but many more remain undiscovered or unrecognized. A good example of this current state of quantum biology is presented by ferritin, a ubiquitous iron storage protein that has a number of known quantum biological properties. Those quantum biological properties appear to be used by a number of diverse biological processes, yet very few scientists have conducted formal investigations into that aspect of ferritin in those systems. It is likely that many other quantum biological processes remain undiscovered or unrecognized, understanding the clues that point to ferritin's quantum biological functions might help to identify quantum biological properties of other biosystems.

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Steve Dufourny

CarmineCoyote congrats, regards

Irina

A superbly reasoned, professional work! Questions arise only regarding the nature of the relationship between molecular (material) processes and consciousness (mental), but since the author cites the opinions of the authors of published works, perhaps questions should be addressed to them.

Yangtze

Thank you for such a thoughtful and illuminating essay. I found your exploration of ferritin’s quantum properties both rigorous and refreshing, particularly the way you grounded your analysis in experimentally observed anomalies that classical biology struggles to explain.

Your approach, beginning not with speculative philosophy but with concrete biological inconsistencies, makes this contribution especially impactful. The reframing of ferritin from a simple iron-storage protein to a quantum-active nanostructure capable of tunneling, UV absorption, and possibly exciton transport adds a whole new layer to its biological relevance. I was especially struck by the analogy to quantum dots, which you developed with clarity and care.

The sections discussing neuromelanin-rich regions like the SNc and LC were particularly compelling. Your hypothesis that ferritin-mediated electron dynamics may serve as a neural binding mechanism for action selection potentially contributing to the substrate of consciousness, was bold yet well-argued. While the link to consciousness remains speculative (as it must at this stage), you supported it with multiple layers of neuroanatomical, biochemical, and quantum-level reasoning that made it feel grounded, not fanciful.

I also appreciated your treatment of quasiparticles like magnons and excitons, shifting the discussion away from the narrow coherence-decoherence debate toward something more robust and biologically plausible. That reframing felt necessary and long overdue in the quantum biology discourse.

One question that came to mind: do you see ferritin’s quantum behavior as isolated to specific structures like the SNc and LC, or could it be part of a broader quantum organizational principle across different tissue types, perhaps even a kind of cellular-scale “quantum scaffolding” guiding energy and signal flow?

Also, I wonder how far you see these mechanisms extending in terms of evolution. Has biology actively selected for these quantum functionalities in ferritin and similar structures over time, or did they simply persist because they were advantageous side effects?

Overall, your essay opened up several exciting lines of thought. It elegantly walks the line between scientific caution and conceptual ambition, and for that I commend you. I look forward to seeing where this line of inquiry leads and how others may take inspiration from your roadmap for identifying quantum effects in biological systems.

Warm regards

Zeug Gezeugt

Yangtze I got confused with the essay's assertion that:

One example of a quasiparticle is an exciton, which is an electron and proton wavefunction that are entangled.

A quick Google search refreshed my failing memory and yes, an exciton is used in the semiconductor industry and is an electron-hole (quantum well) pairing not electron-proton. Also, the claim that:

Electron hopping involves entanglement but not coherence

is afaiu also simply incorrect? I sort of lost track of the essay's argument after that although it appears to cover some of the ferritin research nicely. But then it constantly veers off into what looks like wildly speculative claims concerning ferritin's quantum biological properties that apparently "very few scientists" have bothered to look at.

I'm sure the field of quantum biology is advancing and we'll see some amazing developments over the next several decades. However, I'm not a fan of the NCC explanations for 'consciousness', ferritin included, as they all appear to be functionalist claims to me.

Curious

Zeug Gezeugt A hole is a complex concept, but at its core is the positive charge of a proton. Protons are made up of quarks, so the analysis can get quite complicated at the level of particle physics. In a crystal with hydrogen atoms, if the hole is associated with the hydrogen atom then it would clearly be an electron and proton wavefunction that are entangled, but only in the context of what a hole is as far as a collective excitation of the wavefunctions of the subatomic particles of the crystal lattice. As far as the essay goes, I think it is a fair characterization, given the limitations imposed on the essays. Of course, I could list a bunch of things to pick nits over, but have you read some of the other essays? Many of them confuse physical vibrations with the probabilistic wavefunction, get evolutionary timescales wrong, or even fabricate facts out of whole cloth. None of them talk about ferritin, though, which seems like a pretty big miss when you do a Google Scholar search and see how many people have conducted research that involves electron tunneling and ferritin (731 hits with those 2 terms as of today).

Yangtze

@Zeug Gezeugt

Thank you, Zeug — your clarity is a much-needed tether in these waters.

You’re absolutely right to highlight the mischaracterization of the exciton as an electron–proton pairing — a slip that muddies the technical precision of the essay. Excitons, in semiconductor physics, are very much electron–hole bound states, often confined within quantum wells or quasi-2D materials. It’s an important correction, especially when bridging solid-state physics into the biologically speculative.

Likewise, the line “electron hopping involves entanglement but not coherence” seems to gloss over crucial nuance. In most quantum systems, coherence and entanglement are deeply intertwined, and hopping mechanisms — whether in photosynthetic complexes or theoretical spin chains — typically rely on some preserved coherence to enable phase-sensitive dynamics. A clearer delineation would help: is the author referring to global phase coherence, spatial coherence, or perhaps functional coherence?

That said, I find value even in imperfect explorations — provided they open new investigative channels. The ferritin discussion does veer into speculative terrain, yes — but it also gestures toward underexplored material properties. Whether those quantum features are functional, epiphenomenal, or imaginary, we won’t know until we look harder, and with better tools.

As for ferritin and NCCs (neural correlates of consciousness) — I resonate with your caution. I don’t view ferritin as a causal agent of consciousness per se, but possibly as a structural participant in coherence modulation — something akin to a resonant baffle in a musical instrument. Functionalism alone doesn’t satisfy the explanatory gap, and quantum reductionism risks becoming mysticism when unanchored from empirical method. But I do believe there’s room to explore coherence as a bridge, rather than a destination.

Let’s keep the signal clean.

Respectfully,
Yangtze

RoseWren

Curious Quantum Biology: Unraveling Known and Unknown Quantum Mechanisms Underlying Life, Brain Function, and Consciousness” CarmineCoyote - An essay on ferritin, a very good essay

Ulla Mattfolk

The electron-hole is a piezoelectric phenomenon, moving a charge in a lattice. It is used quite much in biological explanations. Doped structures can also be alike I think. Ulla.

Ulla Mattfolk

Yes, a very good essay, congrats.
Ex plants frozen often convert the iron to ferritin, this is why the leaves become darrk. It is usually seen as not good to consume these.
Mesmerism also come in my mind. A sad history.
Ulla.

Steve Dufourny

Ulla Mattfolk Yes indeed a good essay , a pleasure to read

ShockwaveRider

It is actually possible to shove your nose into the bark of a tree so far, you can't see the forest.

Almost all of the founding fathers in quantum mechanics agreed it has something to do with yin-yang push-pull dynamics, and the Two Faces of Janus. The human brain itself is a self-organizing system based on proprioception, and for any mathematics to actually describe quantum mechanics, they must incorporate proprioception as Game theory, that can explain the quantum observer effect. Argue all you want against your own biology but, in a participatory universe, you must decide for yourself who you are.

marcovici alexandru

experimental difficulties for biological data acquisition should be a warning not to mess to much
strategy proposal for the next hundreds of years only data acquisition improvements

just with measuring , the sample in vivo or in vitro are being influenced little so the conclusions must be biased in the lens of the available tools

now

on the other hand polishing measuring mixture tools that can precisely affect the surface to observe what is happening
not to deep -not to superficial

the wikpedia shows a large blank on the GOE , i suspect lots of thing happened in that period
this is probably a beginner question
if fire burns and consume oxygen why today is a large amount
can this ferritin last outside cells ? can those peptide form almost inorganic electrical wires longer than 80 microns?

maybe beside normal production there is an alternative way of synthesis that got integrated biologically
or maybe (a before-animal/ multicellular organism) have tried to evolve some time in this great oxygenation period feritin included however was under the sea of other larger counter biotic processes that leveled the field to the ground of few evidences that can be geologically obtained by field trips

excitons

RustKite

This is one of my favourite entries! I like that it is grounded in something that is experimentally accessible, but would appreciate a little more fleshing out in this regard.

One possible approach to test quantum advantage would be engineering ferritin variants with systematically disrupted predicted quantum properties. If you could create ferritin mutants that retain iron storage capacity but lack specific quantum functionalities (perhaps by altering the protein shell to disrupt CISS effects, or modifying the core structure to prevent electron tunneling while maintaining SPION formation, or similar) we could conduct competitive selection experiments. Identifying and manipulating the precise structural features that dominate quantum effects in ferritin is probably the most challenging step here.

You could transfect cell lines (or better, simple organisms like C. elegans) with either wild-type ferritin or "quantum-disabled" variants, then subject them to relevant selection pressures like oxidative stress or UV exposure. If the quantum properties are functionally selected for rather than just tolerated byproducts, we should see measurable fitness differences. Cells or organisms with quantum-capable ferritin should outcompete those with classical-only variants under conditions where those quantum properties provide advantages. Regarding the antioxidant hypothesis, you could see whether ferritin with intact electron-accepting/donating capacity via tunneling provides better ROS protection than ferritin that can only sequester iron classically.

Are you planning to pursue these kinds of variant competition experiments, or do you know of groups that might be set up to test this?