ON THE QUANTUM INTERACTION OF LIGHT WITH THE RETINAL NANOSTRUCTURE
November 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
The nanostructure that forms the surface of retinal outer segments functions to absorb light as a classical electromagnetic wave between receptors while simultaneously translating the absorbed energy into a quantized electron particle in the mass of the receptor itself. This fundamental interaction is described in quantum physics as occurring between quantized light particles (photons) and single atoms.
The biologically evolved nanostructure of the retina, however, is structured to perform two additional functions. The first directs the absorbed wave energy orthogonally to quantum-confined electron sites These sites are the retinal/rhodopsin molecular complexes that have been sohown to have the correct dichroic orientation for accepting the absorbed energy from this direction. The second function involves the energy transfer process that temporally “slows down” or thermalizes the interaction to the final, human nervous system useful, time domain. This involves a transition from ~10-15 seconds (femtosecond) to ~10-3 seconds (millisecond). I have proposed that this transfer of energy process involves a solitonic (lossless) mechanism in the membraneous lipid structure of the thylakoid disks that comprise the body of retinal receptors.
In overview then, the retina evolved to detect light as a wave in a two dimensional array of quantized electron sites that translate the absorbed energy into what becomes the visual image. This information in the quantum domain is subsequently transformed in time to human nervous system scale by the remainder of the retinal structure and transmitted coherently through the optic nerve to the visual centers of the brain.
GCH
10.05.08
Ojai, CA
