SUMMARY OF THIS EXPLANATION OF THE VISION PROCESS - OCTOBER 2008
October 14th, 2008 | No Comments »It becomes obvious from this work that the eye evolved to detect light as the electromagnetic wave of classical physics and not the traditionally held view that “photons interact with pigments within individual retinal receptors”.
The photon is shown actually to be a “quantized wave-to-particle transition” that occurs at the point of the nanostructure of retinal outer segments. It has historically been wrong to assume that “photons go from place-to-place”.
It is fascinating that these statements do not violate the tenets of either classical or quantum physics! The translation process can be viewed from either direction - as classical waves or quantum particles!.”
The millions of individual nanostructural light detection sites formed by appositions at the plane of retinal outer segments (that much has been correctly understood) perform this fundamental transition from electromagnetic wave to the quantized electron particle.
This means, in summary, that it logically must follow that the vision process interfaces the vision system with the domain of quantum physics. This is the point that has been termed in physics the “Heisenberg Cut” and calls into focus the possible existence of a “quantum reality out there” whatever that term turns out to mean.
The sub-optical wavelength size of these detection sites and evidence that they operate in the very fast femtosecond (10-15 sec) time domain is consistent with this statement. It has been experimentally shown that isomerization (the electronic “signal producing event”) of the retinal molecule contained within receptors occurs in this fast time domain.
These thoughts have major implications to the subjects of vision, consciousness, and, in fact, our entire view of what constitutes reality. I will be writing about this.
The historically held idea taught in every textbook that the eye acts as the camera that we understand with a reaction time in terms of milliseconds (10-3 sec) must be given up!
Moreover, it follows from the well known fact the eye is sensitive to “single photon interactions” (never explained) means that each if detection sites described above possess the sensitivity to detect what will now be termed “single quantized events”. Such localization of quantized electrons are subsequently used in electronic processes to form the visual image. (I have presented electronic noise reduction scenarios that may explain this capability)
It is crucial to note that each of these single quantized events – determined by the nanostructure of the retina as explained in this work - produce identical output signals or, in electronic terms, the same “pulse height.” This is analogous to the output of a nuclear Geiger counter where the result of an interaction is a constant output pulse size.
To summarize, the eye reveals a heretofore unobserved nanostructural interaction between light and matter that comprises;
a.) A sub-micron dimensioned (i.e., smaller than the wavelength of light) spatial region of variable dimensions to absorb the electromagnetic wave and, as shown in this work, to geometrically discriminate between wavelengths.
With this region being immediately adjacent to:
b.) An absorbing material-related space of fixed dimensions that quantum confines the absorbing electron following understood physics principles. ( I understand that the subject of quantum confinement certainly has many ramifications. I simply point to the “electron-in-a-box” approximation of quantum physics.)
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ADDED IN PROOF:
I have discussed the recent discovery of a “porous silicon” visible light interactive nanostructure (that strongly resembles the morphology of the receptors of the retina!). This structure is composed of high aspect ratio silicon “pillars” (no pigments in site!) and intervening “pores”. Visible light only interacts with this structure only when the pillars have been reduced (laterally) to nanometer electron quantum confinement dimension.
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AND FURTHER IN PROOF:
A recent paper “EVIDENCE FOR WAVELIKE ENERGY TRANSFER THROUGH QUANTUM COHERENCE IN PHOTOSYNTHETIC SYSTEMS” (Nature, Vol. 446, April 2007) beings with the sentence “Photosynthetic complexes are exquisitely tuned to capture solar light efficiently, and then transmit the energy to reaction centers…….” Further on the authors note the”extreme efficiency.. of the photosynthetic process.”. The extraordinary light detection efficiency of biological photosynthetic systems and the retina of the eye is well known but never explained. In vision this efficiency manifests itself in the well understood results that the eye/retina can discern single photon (or “quantized”) interactions. This is discussed above - there can be no “greater sensitivity”. In this paper the authors employ the concept of “quantum coherence” that inherently posits that the initiatory step in the interaction has a wave nature and that these quantum waves display coherence occurring in (real) space. This result opens up many avenues for thought in finally understanding the processes of vision.
I would note that I have also proposed that the same “classical/quantum” nanostructure of theretinaof the eye is present in the photosynthetic organelles of plants and algae. Search “chloroplast” on the main page.
10.29.08
