Useful reading

Jim Al-Khalili presents an overview of quantum biology in his talk available here and gives another interesting talk (Quantum) Life? at The Royal Society here.

For more in-depth reading, ‘Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology’ (Al-Khalili and McFadden 2014) book is available here: (link)

The following report by the European Science Foundation (2015) ‘A Foresight Activity on Research in Quantum Biology (FarQBio) (link) is suitable for a non-physicist readership. Also the article ‘Vibrations, quanta and biology’ by Huelga SF and Plenio MB (2013) (link).

For introductory but highly informative books on quantum physics, we recommend ‘Quantum Mechanics’ (A Ladybird Expert Book) by Jim Al-Khalili , (link) ‘How to teach quantum physics to your dog’ by Chad Orzel (link) and ‘30-second quantum theory’, edited by Brian Clegg (Ball et al. 2014) (link).

The free text book: “Motion mountain – adventures in physics, volume IV, the quantum of change”, by Christoph Schiller is a good in-depth reference on quantum mechanics.

Ball, P., B. Clegg, L. Clifford, F. Close, S. Hebden, A. Hellemans, S.A. Holgate, and A. May. 2014. 30-Second Quantum Theory; the 50 most important thought-provoking quantum concepts, each explain in half a minute (ICON Books Ltd: London, UK). (link)

Gribbin, J. 2013. Computing with quantum cats; from Alan Turing to teleportation (Transworld Publishers: London, UK). (link)

Lane, N. 2015. The Vital Question: Why is Life the way it is? (Profile Books Ltd: Great Britain). (link)

Quantum biology articles 

For a good introduction to the origins of quantum biology see the excellent review by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili (2018), which is freely available here and the short review published in The Scientist (2019) ‘Quantum biology may help to solve some of life’s greatest mysteries’ (link).

Calabrese, V., C. Cornelius, A. T. nkova-Kostova, I. Iavicoli, Paola R. Di, A. Koverech, S. Cuzzocrea, E. Rizzarelli, and E. J. Calabrese. 2012. 'Cellular stress responses, hormetic phytochemicals and vitagenes in aging and longevity', Biochim.Biophys.Acta, 1822: 753-83. (link)

Cifra, M., and P. Pospisil. 2014. 'Ultra-weak photon emission from biological samples: definition, mechanisms, properties, detection and applications', J Photochem Photobiol B, 139: 2-10. (link)

Craddock, T. J., D. Friesen, J. Mane, S. Hameroff, and J. A. Tuszynski. 2014. 'The feasibility of coherent energy transfer in microtubules', J R Soc Interface, 11: 20140677. (link)

Craddock, T. J., A. Priel, and J. A. Tuszynski. 2014. 'Keeping time: could quantum beating in microtubules be the basis for the neural synchrony related to consciousness?', J Integr Neurosci, 13: 293-311. (link)

Cuadrado, S., J. R. Goicoechea, J. Cernicharo, A. Fuente, J. Pety, and B. Tercero. 2017. 'Complex organic molecules in strongly UV-irradiated gas', Astron Astrophys, 603. (link)

de Vries, S., K. Dorner, M. J. Strampraad, and T. Friedrich. 2015. 'Electron tunneling rates in respiratory complex I are tuned for efficient energy conversion', Angew Chem Int Ed Engl, 54: 2844-8. (link)

DeVault, D., and B. Chance. 1966. 'Studies of photosynthesis using a pulsed laser. I. Temperature dependence of cytochrome oxidation rate in chromatium. Evidence for tunneling', Biophys J, 6: 825-47. (link)

Egel, R., D-H. Lankenau, and Y.Y. Mulkidjanian (ed.)^(eds.). 2011. Origins of Life: the Primal Self-Organisation (Springer-Verlag: Berlin Heidelberg). (link)

Engel, G. S., T. R. Calhoun, E. L. Read, T. K. Ahn, T. Mancal, Y. C. Cheng, R. E. Blankenship, and G. R. Fleming. 2007. 'Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems', Nature, 446: 782-6. (link)

Fassioli, F., R. Dinshaw, P. C. Arpin, and G. D. Scholes. 2014. 'Photosynthetic light harvesting: excitons and coherence', J R Soc Interface, 11: 20130901. (link)

Frohlich, F., and D. A. McCormick. 2010. 'Endogenous electric fields may guide neocortical network activity', Neuron, 67: 129-43. (link)

Gane, S., D. Georganakis, K. Maniati, M. Vamvakias, N. Ragoussis, E. M. Skoulakis, and L. Turin. 2013. 'Molecular vibration-sensing component in human olfaction', PLoS One, 8: e55780. (link)

Gatenby, R. A., and B. R. Frieden. 2010. 'Coulomb interactions between cytoplasmic electric fields and phosphorylated messenger proteins optimize information flow in cells', PLoS One, 5: e12084. (link)

Hameroff, S., and R. Penrose. 2014. 'Consciousness in the universe: a review of the 'Orch OR' theory', Phys Life Rev, 11: 39-78. (link)

Hayashi, T., and A. A. Stuchebrukhov. 2011. 'Quantum electron tunneling in respiratory complex I', J Phys Chem B, 115: 5354-64. (link)

Imai, S. I., and L. Guarente. 2016. 'It takes two to tango: NAD+ and sirtuins in aging/longevity control', NPJ Aging Mech Dis, 2: 16017. (link)

Knupp, J., P. Arvan, and A. Chang. 2018. 'Increased mitochondrial respiration promotes survival from endoplasmic reticulum stress', Cell Death Differ. (link)

Kosgodage, U. S., R. Mould, A. B. Henley, A. V. Nunn, G. W. Guy, E. L. Thomas, J. M. Inal, J. D. Bell, and S. Lange. 2018. 'Cannabidiol (CBD) Is a Novel Inhibitor for Exosome and Microvesicle (EMV) Release in Cancer', Front Pharmacol, 9: 889. (link)

Kosgodage, U. S., P. Uysal-Onganer, A. MacLatchy, R. Mould, A. V. Nunn, G. W. Guy, I. Kraev, N. P. Chatterton, E. L. Thomas, J. M. Inal, J. D. Bell, and S. Lange. 2019. 'Cannabidiol Affects Extracellular Vesicle Release, miR21 and miR126, and Reduces Prohibitin Protein in Glioblastoma Multiforme Cells', Transl Oncol, 12: 513-22. (link)

Kurian, P., T. O. Obisesan, and T. J. A. Craddock. 2017. 'Oxidative species-induced excitonic transport in tubulin aromatic networks: Potential implications for neurodegenerative disease', J Photochem Photobiol B, 175: 109-24. (link)

Le, M., C. Fernandez-Palomo, F. E. McNeill, C. B. Seymour, A. J. Rainbow, and C. E. Mothersill. 2017. 'Exosomes are released by bystander cells exposed to radiation-induced biophoton signals: Reconciling the mechanisms mediating the bystander effect', PLoS One, 12: e0173685. (link)

Le, M., F. E. McNeill, C. B. Seymour, A. Rusin, K. Diamond, A. J. Rainbow, J. Murphy, and C. E. Mothersill. 2018. 'Modulation of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) by radiation- induced biophotons', Environ Res, 163: 80-87. (link)

Le, M., F. E. McNeill, C. Seymour, A. J. Rainbow, and C. E. Mothersill. 2015. 'An observed effect of ultraviolet radiation emitted from beta-irradiated HaCaT cells upon non-beta-irradiated bystander cells', Radiat Res, 183: 279-90. (link)

Levin, M. 2014. 'Molecular bioelectricity: how endogenous voltage potentials control cell behavior and instruct pattern regulation in vivo', Mol Biol Cell, 25: 3835-50. (link)

Lim, J., D. Palecek, F. Caycedo-Soler, C. N. Lincoln, J. Prior, H. von Berlepsch, S. F. Huelga, M. B. Plenio, D. Zigmantas, and J. Hauer. 2015. 'Vibronic origin of long-lived coherence in an artificial molecular light harvester', Nat Commun, 6: 7755. (link)

Lovley, D. R., and N. S. Malvankar. 2015. 'Seeing is believing: novel imaging techniques help clarify microbial nanowire structure and function', Environ Microbiol, 17: 2209-15. (link)

Lundholm, I.V.; Rodilla, H.: Wahlgren, W.Y.; Duelli, A.; Bourenkov, G.; Vukusic, J.; Friedman, R.; Stake, J.; Scheider, T.; and Katona, G. 2015. 'Terahertz radiation induces non-thermal structural changes associated with Frohlich condensation in a protein crystal', Structural Dynamics, 2, 054702. (link)

McFadden, J., and J. Al-Khalili. 2018. 'The origins of quantum biology', Proc. R. Soc. A, 474. (link)

Monteverde, D. R., L. Gomez-Consarnau, C. Suffridge, and S. A. Sanudo-Wilhelmy. 2017. 'Life's utilization of B vitamins on early Earth', Geobiology, 15: 3-18. (link)

Moser, C. C., T. A. Farid, S. E. Chobot, and P. L. Dutton. 2006. 'Electron tunneling chains of mitochondria', Biochim Biophys Acta, 1757: 1096-109. (link)

Nunn, A. V., G.W. Guy, and J.D. Bell. 2016. 'The quantum mitochondrion and optimal health', Biochem Soc Trans, 44: 1101-10. (link)

Pokorny, J., J. Pokorny, and J. Kobilkova. 2013. 'Postulates on electromagnetic activity in biological systems and cancer', Integr Biol (Camb), 5: 1439-46. (link)

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Schaefer, P. M., S. Kalinina, A. Rueck, C. A. F. von Arnim, and B. von Einem. 2019. 'NADH Autofluorescence-A Marker on its Way to Boost Bioenergetic Research', Cytometry A, 95: 34-46. (link)

Schmied, R., J. D. Bancal, B. Allard, M. Fadel, V. Scarani, P. Treutlein, and N. Sangouard. 2016. 'Bell correlations in a Bose-Einstein condensate', Science, 352: 441-4. (link)

Sherrard, R. M., N. Morellini, N. Jourdan, M. El-Esawi, L. D. Arthaut, C. Niessner, F. Rouyer, A. Klarsfeld, M. Doulazmi, J. Witczak, A. d'Harlingue, J. Mariani, I. McLure, C. F. Martino, and M. Ahmad. 2018. 'Low-intensity electromagnetic fields induce human cryptochrome to modulate intracellular reactive oxygen species', PLoS Biol, 16: e2006229. (link)

Srobar, F. 2012. 'Frohlich systems in cellular physiology', Prague Med Rep, 113: 95-104. (link)

Stratton, D., S. Lange, and J. M. Inal. 2013. 'Pulsed extremely low-frequency magnetic fields stimulate microvesicle release from human monocytic leukaemia cells', Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 430: 470-5. (link)

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Sweetlove, L. J., A. Lytovchenko, M. Morgan, A. Nunes-Nesi, N. L. Taylor, C. J. Baxter, I. Eickmeier, and A. R. Fernie. 2006. 'Mitochondrial uncoupling protein is required for efficient photosynthesis', Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 103: 19587-92. (link)

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Tachibana, S., A. Kouchi, T. Hama, Y. Oba, L. Piani, I. Sugawara, Y. Endo, H. Hidaka, Y. Kimura, K. I. Murata, H. Yurimoto, and N. Watanabe. 2017. 'Liquid-like behavior of UV-irradiated interstellar ice analog at low temperatures', Sci Adv, 3: eaao2538. (link)

Tamulis, A., and M. Grigalavicius. 2014. 'Quantum entanglement in photoactive prebiotic systems', Syst Synth Biol, 8: 117-40. (link)

Tapia, P. C. 2006. 'Sublethal mitochondrial stress with an attendant stoichiometric augmentation of reactive oxygen species may precipitate many of the beneficial alterations in cellular physiology produced by caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, exercise and dietary phytonutrients: "Mitohormesis" for health and vitality', Med.Hypotheses, 66: 832-43. (link)

Tarlaci, S., and M. Pregnolato. 2016. 'Quantum neurophysics: From non-living matter to quantum neurobiology and psychopathology', Int J Psychophysiol, 103: 161-73. (link)

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Vattay, G., S. Kauffman, and S. Niiranen. 2014. 'Quantum biology on the edge of quantum chaos', PLoS One, 9: e89017. (link)

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