Just Finished Reading: Life on the Edge – The Coming Age of Quantum Biology by Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden (FP: 2014)

Of course this book had ‘hard to ignore’ written all over it as it amalgamates two of my favourite science subjects – Evolutionary Biology and Quantum Mechanics. I mean, what’s not to like? Plus the fact that I’ve seen the BBC series based on the book so I already had a pretty good idea that it would push my buttons. I was not disappointed.

The authors started off with a deceptively easy question (well, kind of easy!). How do birds, and specifically the European Robin, navigate across large distances with such incredible accuracy? The best theory seems to be that they use some kind of compass in conjunction with the Earth’s magnetic field but no one really knew exactly how and the theory had lots of holes in it. Some birds seemed to have ferrous metal elements in their beaks (but not all) and seemed to be adversely affected by nearby magnetic fields (but not all). It was all very confusing until they started asking the right type of question: Exactly what type of compass are we talking about here? The one everyone is familiar with from Boy Scouts or the more subtle Inclination compass that can’t tell direction so neatly but can tell you if you are approaching or moving away from the Pole. It turned out to be the Inclination type housed (rather oddly) in a pigment in the eye. Birds apparently ‘see’ magnetic fields…. Maybe. As researchers spread their net they found it in chickens too (who don’t migrate), and butterflies, and fish and… well, you get the picture. Once they knew what to look for they found it just about everywhere doing similar jobs in a whole host of creatures. But the really weird thing was how it actually worked. You see the Earth’s magnetic field was long considered to be far too weak to affect biological systems. But not, it would seem, at the sub-atomic (AKA Quantum) level. Here we seemed to have evidence of warm, wet, messy biology apparently operating with the direct assistance of the Quantum world.

Of course once this sort of crazy idea was out in the open others (after the usual initial scepticism) tried to find other examples of Quantum Biology and it wasn’t long before they found it and began to lay the foundations of a whole new branch of science – and incidentally apparently answering (or at the very least offering up answers to) some biological problems that had to date eluded most biologists in the field: Migration, Photosynthesis, Smell, Respiration, How Gene’s work and why Mutations happen, Where Consciousness comes from, How life first emerged from lifelessness and much else besides. Once it was accepted and then shown that Quantum processes could actually take place at biological temperatures and do real-world work with real-world effects the evidence began piling up that the whole gamut of Quantum weirdness – spooky action at a distance, tunnelling, superposition – the kind of things that sends sensible people mad (and often reduces me to giggles) is happening right now in the cells of plants, flies, mice and you. The implications of this is profound, from the production of better drugs, to life extension, biological Quantum computers, artificial life creation and things we haven’t even thought of yet.

As the authors repeatedly point out this is a very young field of science which is producing ground breaking results almost on a weekly basis. Their enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and I think I finally really understand the famous double-slit experiment in all its wonderful strangeness thanks to a chapter that kept me reading well past my bedtime on a school night. If you have any interest in either Evolution or Quantum Mechanics or just want to know how the world really works then you just have to read this book. It does help if you have some knowledge and understanding of the basics but the explanations of exactly what’s going on here are extremely good. I thought I had a handle on things beforehand. I definitely have a much better grip now. Fascinating and mind bending. Highly recommended.