<story><title>Organisms might be quantum machines</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160715-organisms-might-be-quantum-machines</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>danbruc</author><text>Tl;dr Biology is applied chemistry, chemistry is applied quantum physics and in some cases chemistry is a leaky abstraction and does not perfectly explain what is going on in organisms. Three examples - photosynthesis being more efficient than expected, birds sensing Earth&amp;#x27;s magnetic field by an unknown mechanism and a lack of understanding how olfaction works in detail - are presented but besides that there are no new revolutionary ideas in the article.</text></comment>
<story><title>Organisms might be quantum machines</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160715-organisms-might-be-quantum-machines</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mixedmath</author><text>Only somewhat related: I&amp;#x27;m currently reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I&amp;#x27;m nearing the end of the book, and the concept that human brains might use quantum processes in the decision-making process is a very important and prevalent idea in the novel. [Although he takes some artistic license --- it is only a novel, afterall]. So I&amp;#x27;ve been thinking, at least passively, about organisms being quantum machines quite a bit for the last week or so.</text></comment>