Matsuno 1993 has argued that the actual en- ergy release from an ATP molecule with the aid of
an actomyosin complex proceeds by emitting a sequence of quanta, each of which carries energy
e
m
, at every time interval of Dt
m
while satisfying the constraints
e
m
D t
m
e
m
D t
m
= e
ATP
t
ATP
In this case m denotes a quantum being responsi- ble for internal measurement. We may think of the
energy flow associated with measuring each quan- tum as carrying energy e
m
over the time interval D
t
m
. This is eventually imputed to the energy release from a single ATP molecule Matsuno,
1993. The corresponding values em 2.2 × 10
− 19
erg and Dt
m
4.5 × 10
− 9
s would then come to imply that the number of energy quanta,
each of which carries energy e
m
, emitted coher- ently during one cycle of energy release from an
ATP molecule at an actomyosin complex would roughly be t
ATP
D t
m
2.2 × 10
6
. Actomyosin AT- Pase activity is thus associated with emission of
quanta, whose typical energy is 2.2 × 10
− 19
erg or 1.6 × 10
− 3
K in temperature. The effective tem- perature of an actomyosin complex in the pres-
ence of ATP molecules comes to decrease down to as low as 1.6 × 10
− 3
K Matsuno, 1993, 1999. The realisation of such an extremely low effec-
ti6e temperature serves as a means of precipitating a quantum coherence. The sliding movement of
an actin filament on myosin molecules just mani- fests that the linear velocity of each actin
monomer along the filament attains as much as 10 m
ms in a mutually coherent manner. Since this velocity gives each actin monomer linear momen-
tum as much as 2.2 × 10
− 21
erg scm, the corre- sponding de Broglie length turns out be 4.5 nm.
In this case we can begin to envisage how local coherence could generate semi-local, i.e. meso-
copic coherence. The entangled system is related to the coherence of the interacting co-measuring
protein molecules. Information gain from this en- tangled system is represented in the coherence
persisting beyond individual actin monomers. So the 4.5 nm unit is achieved through the semi-lo-
calised i.e. long range ‘glue’ effects due to local exchange and measurement. Moreover, the de
Broglie wavelength of 4.5 nm can make it possible to form more mesoscopic or macroscopic quan-
tum coherence over adjacent actin monomers along the actin filament through the quantum
entanglement, since the diameter of an actin monomer is only 2.5 nm that is less than the de
Broglie length.
Once it is accepted that biological information processing has a quantum-mechanical underpin-
ning, two major players turn to come to the fore. One is the occurrence of a quantum coherence by
means of exchange interaction. The other is the enlargement of the coherence through the process
of quantum entanglement. An actomyosin com- plex
underlying muscle
contraction certainly
serves as a concrete example demonstrating both the occurrence of the quantum coherence and the
quantum entanglement. It is worth recapping on actin monomers in an
actin filament are in contact with each other. If they are in a quantum coherence, a necessary
condition must be that the de Broglie wavelength of each actin monomer should be greater than the
diameter of the monomer, otherwise there could be no such quantum coherence over the length of
a unit monomer. Although we have emphasised a necessary condition indirectly, this property of the
de Broglie wavelength being greater than the di- ameter of an actin monomer must be verified
directly. X-ray diffraction investigations would be a case in point. What is technically crucial is how
to make F-actin crystallise. Some action has been going on in this direction. Uno Lindberg in Stock-
holm and Clarence Schutt in Princeton are now heavily involved in an X-ray diffraction study of
an F-actin.
3. The ecology of quantum information
We now examine one approach to reaching a better understanding of ways biological informa-
tion could be processed at the quantum level by looking at how biomolecules could be interacting
in vivo. Note that the previous statement takes a modal qualifier ‘could’ because the experimental
methods for determining such interactions have yet to be elaborated. The interaction can be con-
sidered in terms of an ecology in the same way that the macroscopic counterparts involve multi-
ple interacting ‘agents’.
An internalist interactional view can be taken down in scale to the quantum level, as for exam-
ple the object-apparatus interaction of DNA and energetic photons Home and Chattopadhyaya,
1996. In this case the action of an energetic photon places the DNA in a quantum superposi-
tion of states which we view at the mesoscopic level in terms of whether a mutation in a bases
has taken place. However, in scaling up from the measuring event i.e. photon-nucleotide interac-
tion, other molecules including water and repair enzymes are also involved. Igamberdiev 1993
shows how quantum non-demolition measure- ments can be made internally. Energy dissipation
is low and is provided by the slow conformational relaxation of biomolecules which could facilitate
long-distance non-local transfer of electrons and protons. For example, during enzyme catalysis
and electron transfer in proteins an electron’s energy can be tranformed into coherent vibra-
tional movements without heat production. Igam- bandiev hypothesises that enzyme are large so
that they can make quantum non-demolition measurements.
In a biological system object-apparatus interac- tion goes on all the time. Indeed, sometimes the
object is a measuring apparatus. As noted earlier interaction implies measurement and the genera-
tion of information. A crucial lesson from quan- tum mechanics is that the interaction between
object and apparatus cannot be made insignificant or compensated for. Phenomena and apparatus
are inextricably linked. Harre´ 1988 applied the Gibsonian idea of an affordance to help clarify
the relationship between measuring apparatus and quantum events. Affordances are distinctly eco-
logical in nature and interaction and context are dispositions of physical things relativised to that
with which they interact. The energy flux detected by a piece of apparatus is shaped or formed by
that apparatus. Put into the context of the present discussion, the molecular detector shapes what it
detects. In the wave-particle duality sense, the detection of a particulate phenomenon is a conse-
quence of the energy flux interacting with appara- tus of that kind. Thus, particles can exist nowhere
else but in relation to particle-forming apparatus. Apparatus and energy flux exist as a reciprocal
pair. The former affords particulate phenomena for one species of apparatus and field phenomena
for another. In addition pieces of apparatus are themselves afforded by the interaction with hu-
man scientists with the energy flux. In the tradi- tional sense of a preparation in a quantum
physical experiment, the humanity of the per- ceiver is always incorporated in the results of the
experimentation.
1
Harre´ presents an interesting analogy concern- ing the role of apparatus in chemistry, using the
example of the preparation of liquid bromine in a retort. In this case, both the retort and the liquid
bromine are products of preparations and proce- dures, they are both artefacts. In Harre´’s terms
not only is the retort shaped by exigencies of condensing vapours, the liquid bromine is only
made possible, as a stuff, by that apparatus. This disposition of the retort is only made available to
the bromine. In a similar sense and from this ecological viewpoint one could say that the dispo-
sition of one biomolecule within a measuring event is only made available to its interacting
partner.
Any local quantum event can be seen as a message if it is taken to be under the wider
context of quantum entanglement. Exchange in- teraction consists of three basic processes, namely,
experiencing the presented, transforming the expe- rienced and representing the transformed to the
others. This sequence of experiencing, transform- ing and representing propagates indefinitely in the
medium mediated by exchange interaction. A con- sequence is that each representation of the trans-
formed, that is necessarily local, is constantly updated in the process. Updating the molecular
representation from the internalist perspective Matsuno, 1996 is no more than an indication of
the procession of quantum mechanical computa- tion of a local character.
1
Ray Paton thanks Rom Harre´ for clarifying this point to him.
Focusing on exchange interaction helps to shed new light on the issue of quantum information in
biology. In view of the fact that exchange interac- tion consists of three basic processes of experienc-
ing the presented, transforming the experienced and representing the transformed to the others, it
becomes natural to see that those quantum me- chanical processes uphold by exchange interaction
is informational. Biology is no exception. That is, exchange interaction consists of local processes
and the procession of local processes is necessarily informational because there is a definite contrast
between the a priori and the a posteriori. More- over, each procession from the a priori to the a
posteriori corresponds to updating the representa- tion of the underlying quantum mechanical
molecules. The quantum mechanical computation underlying the updating is extremely versatile in
accommodating a huge array of parallel process- ing. This competency rests upon the molecular
capacity of experiencing the presented exclusively from the internalist perspective. Although it is
rather common from the externalist perspective to see
that quantum
computation is
prepro- grammable under a fixed global boundary condi-
tion e.g. Deutsch, 1985, the nonprogrammability of exchange interaction of a local character can
now rely upon the nonprogrammable molecular capacity of experiencing something new presented
every time.
Once we pay legitimate attention to the molecu- lar capacity of experiencing something that has
been presented but that has not yet been specified by whatever means, the potential capability of
quantum computation that has not been appreci- ated in the externalist perspective would come to
surface. Exchange interaction of a local character is by no means to denigrate its significance in the
global extent. If one assumes the existence of exchange interaction on the global scale as prac-
tised in field theory, a physicist practising such a global theoretical scheme would also have to as-
sume to have the capacity of completing the com- putation that guaranteed the global consistency in
theory, even if it is no feasible in practice. In contrast, exchange interaction of a local character
tends to approach the global consistency through each quantum computation of a local character.
Quantum information in biology just focuses upon the informational capacity of molecules for
approaching
the global
co-ordination from
within.
4. Concluding comment
