Quantum biology has come in from the cold

QUANTUM biology has come in from the cold. First came news that birds may see magnetic fields, thanks to quantum effects. Now it seems that pigments used in photosynthesis use quantum calculations to harness light (see “Hot green quantum computers revealed”). Physicists had ruled this out at life-friendly temperatures because heat disrupts an effect called quantum coherence. The implication is that we, too, could possess quantum computers. We may only need to look into our own eyes to find the evidence, in the form of the pigment rhodopsin.