Mitochondria are the power plants of the cell. New research suggests they might also be quantum machines.
Scientists have long wondered how living cells manage to produce energy so efficiently—something that’s hard to explain using only classical physics. Many researchers have suspected that quantum mechanics (the strange physics of tiny particles) might play a role, but proving this in living cells has been difficult because of a lack of direct experimental evidence.
In this study, the researchers combined laboratory experiments on living cells, tissues, and mitochondria (the tiny “power plants” inside cells) with a theoretical model. They discovered a special vibration occurring at a frequency of 71.0 terahertz (THz) that appears *only* in living cells and tissues—not in dead or disrupted ones. This vibration depends on mitochondria having an intact, healthy structure, and it doesn’t come from any single molecule.
To explain this, the team built a quantum model describing how light interacts with matter inside mitochondria. Their calculations suggest that a kind of quantum “superposition” state forms inside working mitochondria, created by the coupling of light with lipid (fat) molecules in the folded inner membranes of the mitochondria. This coupling splits a natural vibration of those lipids (at 87 THz) into two new levels—one at 71 THz and one at 103 THz. The 71 THz signal is the one seen only in living cells, while the 103 THz signal gets lost among other vibrations from biomolecules and water, making it impossible to detect separately.
Further experiments showed that this quantum state acts like an efficient control channel for regulating ATP production—ATP being the molecule cells use as fuel. In short, the findings offer a quantum-level explanation for how living cells work, and raise the intriguing possibility that this quantum state might serve not only as a channel for energy metabolism but perhaps even for transmitting information in living systems.
Bottom libe.
The core experimental findings—the 71 THz signal depending on intact mitochondrial structure, and the frequency-specific ATP response—are interesting and worth pursuing. The quantum interpretation is a model that fits the data, not a proven mechanism. Independent replication, direct measurement of energy transfer dynamics, and testing in more complex biological systems are the necessary next steps before any of the grander implications can be taken seriously.
#quantumbiology #mitochondria #ATP #quantummechanics
The high energy-efficiency of life is hard to understand only with classical physics. Many efforts have been made to study its mechanism based on quantum mechanics; the progress is nevertheless slow due to lack of experimental evidence with living cells. Here, combining experiments on cells, tissues and mitochondria with a theoretical model, we demonstrate a quantum state of mitochondria, which can be employed to modulate ATP production in living cells. We found an anomalous 71.0-THz oscillation mode only in living cells and tissues, which is highly determined by intact structure of mitochondria, and cannot be assigned to any specific molecules. Based on experimental data, a quantum model of light-matter coupling was introduced to trace the origin of this mode. Our calculations suggest a quantum superposition state of functional mitochondrion that forms by the coupling of light and lipid CH2 bonds in functional cristae, and induces a splitting of the intrinsic CH2 vibration mode of 87 THz to two levels at 71 THz and 103 THz, respectively. The former can be observed only in living cells and tissues; whereas the latter falls in the range (90–110 THz) of biomolecular and water vibrations, thus indistinguishable. Additional experiments revealed this mitochondrial quantum state able to serve as an efficient channel to modulate ATP production. Our findings provide a quantum mechanics view for understanding living cells, and it will be interesting to further explore whether such quantum state could act as a channel for energy metabolism, and even information transmission in life.
The authors have declared no competing interest.