The Quantum Dimension Of Photosynthesis
In the initial steps of photosynthesis, the energy from a solar photon is transferred through the protein by sequentially exciting electrons in the organic molecules and is eventually delivered where it’s needed. Biologists have long thought that the energy moved like a hot potato: an excited electron in one molecule passes its energy to an electron in another, nearby molecule, and so on.
However, laser-based experiments have suggested other possibilities. In 2007 a team hitting a photosynthetic protein with laser pulses and measuring the time variation in the output light found strong evidence that some of the electrons were coherently coupled. The quantum wave nature of the electrons seemed to be connecting some of the chlorophyll-like molecules and helping energy flow through the protein like a wave on a string.
Photosynthesis is a remarkable chain of triplet state energy transfers culminating in this planet’s slowest, least efficient enzyme: RuBisCO (ribulose 1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase– oxygenase). The obvious experiment is to seed some Arabidopsis thaliana in a high gradient, high divergence, intense magnetic field (hydroponic – soil contains ferromagnetic and paramagnetic particles). Fe-Nd-B permanent magnets easily top a tesla (and Halbach arrays) through large volumes. Do things grow awry?
If so, the second round obviously studies lilies.