From quantum chemistry to quantum biology: a path toward consciousness.

Quantum physics, originally developed to explain early 20th-century experiments, now provides a framework for molecular bonds via quantum chemistry and is being applied to biological phenomena such as photosynthesis and bird navigation. The quantum metabolism theory extends these concepts to explain allometric scaling laws in physiology. The paper also examines whether quantum physics can help understand consciousness, a topic some researchers consider science's last frontier while others deem it outside science. It discusses the Orch OR theory and other hypotheses that aim to provide a scientific basis for consciousness, evaluating their merits and potential extensions.

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Abstract

This paper presents a historical overview of quantum physics methodology's development and application to various science fields beyond physics, especially biology and consciousness. Following a successful interpretation of several early 20t⁢h century experiments, quantum physics gradually provided a conceptual framework for molecular bonds via quantum chemistry. In recent years individual biological phenomena such as photosynthesis and bird navigation have been experimentally and theoretically analyzed using quantum methods, building conceptual foundations for quantum physics' entry into biology. Quantum concepts have also been recently employed to explain physiology's allometric scaling laws by introducing quantum metabolism theory. In the second part of this work, we discuss how quantum physics may also be pivotal to our understanding of consciousness, which has been touted by some researchers as the last frontier of modern science. Others believe that consciousness does not belong within the realm of science at all. Several hypotheses, especially the Orch OR theory, have been suggested over the past two decades to introduce a scientific basis to consciousness theory. We discuss the merits and potential extensions of these approaches.