DISCLAIMER: Lest I be accused of poor scholarship (that has happened!), I will generally not in my Comments include references that I have previously used in other sections of this work. GCH

A recent paper ( Nature, “Quantum Secrets of Photosynthesis Revealed”April 12, 2007) supports my contention that femtosecond (10^-15 sec) time and quantum effects are involved in the initial light interaction in photosynthetic structures. Quoting from the release:

BERKELEY, CA —Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. Speed is the key – the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing mystery that may have finally been solved.

Their results go further finding that quantum coherence is involved –another quote: “We have obtained the first direct evidence that remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence plays an important part in energy transfer processes during photosynthesis”. The underlines are mine as they represent the three terms that I have associated with light interaction.

“Wavelike -  quantum -  coherence” -  one should take note of the association of these terms with one another!

Another paper authored by Fleming and quoted in the Berkeley news release: “Evidence for Wavelike Energy Transfer Through Quantum Coherence in Photosynthetic Systems”.

I will be writing more about this but for the time being I will enclose text that describes my nanostructural explanation for this “wavelike energy transfer”:

I have written often in the body of this work that the fundamentally defining element in the vision process occurs at the point of light interaction with retinal outer segments and, contrary to traditional thought, this interaction occurs in the femtosecond (i.e., 10^-15 sec) time domain. There is a great deal of emerging high speed spectrometric experimentation that supports this contention (well referenced), notably, that the signal-producing isomerization of the retinal molecule occurs in this time. In addition to proposing that inter receptor light detection “devices” possess electronic properties that should be capable of detection in this domain, I have noted that this result must imply that quantum physics must be introduced into the vision process. The entire old thinking about the eye acting as a “camera” and that slow, millisecond “reaction times” of the eye must be discarded.

The eye, and the specific classical/quantum receptor nanostructure that it teaches, define it as the point where the human system interfaces with the quantum regime. To me, there can be no doubt of this!

Another point that must be considered in this light is the ability of the eye to discern (i.e., detect and produce a usable signal from) single photons (or as I would rather say it, “single quanta”). There can be no doubt about this and I have noted many references in the history of vision science to this point. See the references contained in Rose’s “Vision Human and Electronic”. Of note here is that detection efficiency of the eye at the retina must be very high – approaching 100%. I will include a portion of a Wikipedia entry that I have come upon that makes this point very well”

“It was found that the emission of only 90 photons was required in order to elicit visual experience. However, only 45 of these actually entered the retina, due to absorption by the optic media. Furthermore, 80% of these did not reach the fovea. Therefore, it only takes nine photons to be detected by the human eye. Moreover, as the chance of any one rod receiving more than one photon is very small, we can assume that it only takes one photon to excite a rod receptor.”

The fundamental point is that if vision can be shown to visualize single quanta, as it has been, then single receptor light detection sites must be sufficiently sensitive to accomplish this. I have proposed a logical scenario using quantum and electron device thought as how this comes about.

And, I must further note that, in the entire history of vision science, this ability of the eye has never been explained. The physics here have somehow been ignored and swept under the rug!

And, I must note that I have proposed that the same classical/quantum nanostructure principle evolved in the retina of the eye to effect the process of vision evolved in the photosynthetic organelles of plants and algae although optimized in a different direction towards light collection efficiency (as in a solar cell). I have written about this under “chloroplast”.

GCH

10.06.08

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Running Commentary . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.