The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 5 of the 38 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
The origins of quantum biology
Open accessAbstract
Quantum biology is usually considered to be a new discipline, arising from recent research that suggests that biological phenomena such as photosynthesis, enzyme catalysis, avian navigation or olfaction may not only operate within the bounds of classical physics but also make use of a number of the non-trivial features of quantum mechanics, such as coherence, tunnelling and, perhaps, entanglement. However, although the most significant findings have emerged in the past two decades, the roots of quantum biology go much deeper—to the quantum pioneers of the early twentieth century. We will argue that some of the insights provided by these pioneering physicists remain relevant to our understanding of quantum biology today.
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TL;DR
This historical review argues that quantum biology’s roots lie with early twentieth-century quantum pioneers—Bohr, Jordan, Schrödinger, and others—not only with Schrödinger’s 1944 *What is Life?*. It traces how their ideas about small-number molecular control, quantum indeterminacy, and decoherence resonate with modern quantum biology while noting that several current claims remain controversial or speculative.
Key findings
- Quantum biology was born shortly after quantum mechanics itself: Pascual Jordan used the term *Quantenbiologie* from the late 1930s and published what is “arguably the first scientific paper on quantum biology” in 1932, while Schrödinger’s *What is Life?* appeared in 1944.
- Schrödinger argued heredity could not rest on classical “order from disorder” laws because genes were too small; using target theory he estimated a gene as no bigger than a cube of sides 300 Å containing a maximum of about 1 million atoms, implying noise of about one in 1000, or 0.1%, far higher than observed mutation rates of less than 10⁻⁸ per gene per generation.
- Both Jordan and Schrödinger identified a key point relevant to modern quantum biology: macroscopic biological phenomena may be triggered by the dynamics of relatively small numbers of particles, whose behaviour can be influenced by non-trivial quantum effects.
- Modern quantum biology now includes sound experimental evidence for quantum coherence in photosynthesis and quantum tunnelling in enzyme action, with entanglement implicated in avian navigation and tunnelling proposed in olfaction and mutation; however, photosynthesis coherence remains controversial, and olfaction, magnetoreception, and mutation remain more speculative.
Methods
- Design: historical review and narrative synthesis of the origins of quantum biology, drawing on publications, lectures, correspondence, and quotations from early twentieth-century physicists and biologists.
- Data or sample: no new data; the paper states, “There are no data in this historical review article.”
- Main analysis: traces intellectual lineages from organicism and quantum pioneers through the Cambridge Theoretical Biology Club, Schrödinger’s *What is Life?*, mid-century scepticism, Fröhlich coherence, and late twentieth/early twenty-first-century experimental and theoretical work.
Limitations
- The paper states it is a historical review with no data, so it presents no new experimental tests or quantitative synthesis.
- The text itself notes that some modern quantum biology claims remain controversial or speculative—especially long-lived coherence in photosynthesis, olfaction, magnetoreception, and mutation—and that links between quantum coherence and consciousness have “little support within the neurobiology community.”
- As a historical narrative, the review does not claim systematic coverage of all primary literature or resolve ongoing debates; it explicitly says the debate has shifted from whether coherence and tunnelling are involved to what role they play.
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Claims the paper makes
31 Not checked yet · 19 Own interpretation · 10 No basis given · 1 Partly supported · 1 Own result · accuracy not yet measured
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In the paper
“Recent work has demonstrated that the retention of quantum dynamics in biological systems is intricately connected with environmental fluctuations taking place at biologically relevant length and time scales [51–55].”
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites [51] Plenio MB, Huelga SF. 2002. Entangled light from white noise. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 197901 ( 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.197901) [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Abstract reports that white noise can generate entanglement between light fields in two optical cavities, supporting the general connection between environmental fluctuations and quantum behavior. It does not study biological systems or establish that fluctuations at biologically relevant length and time scales retain quantum dynamics. (LLM, conf=0.84)
- Partly supportedcites [52] Plenio MB, Huelga SF. 2008. Dephasing-assisted transport: quantum networks and biomolecules. New J. Phys. 10, 113019 ( 10.1088/1367-2630/10/11/113019) [DOI] [Google Scholar] sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Introduction (page unavailable) describes an interplay between coherent dynamics and environmental dephasing in excitation transport, including in light-harvesting complexes. But the paper says dephasing destroys quantum coherence, rather than demonstrating its retention; Section 6 discusses spatial and temporal correlations in environmental noise without establishing biologically relevant length and time scales. (LLM, conf=0.84)
- Partly supportedcites [53] Rivas Á, Huelga SF, Plenio MB. 2010. Entanglement and non-Markovianity of quantum evolutions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 050403 ( 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.050403) [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The discussion on p. 1 links open-system quantum dynamics to coupling with the environment. The conclusion on p. 4 suggests that such coupling may matter in biological aggregates and mentions femtosecond-scale observations, but it does not demonstrate that retention of quantum dynamics in biological systems depends on environmental fluctuations at biologically relevant length and time scales. (LLM, conf=0.83)
- Supportedcites [54] Huelga SF, Plenio MB. 2013. Vibrations, quanta and biology. Contemp. Phys. 54, 181–207. ( 10.1080/00405000.2013.829687) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
The Introduction (pp. 1–2) connects the possibility of significant quantum dynamics at molecular length and time scales to a constructive interplay with the environment. General Questions and Principles (p. 4) describes how environmental fluctuations and vibrational motion can influence system dynamics and may generate long-lived quantum coherence. (LLM, conf=0.88)
- Could not verifycites [55] Rivas Á, Huelga SF, Plenio MB. 2014. Quantum non-Markovianity: characterization, quantification and detection . Rep. Prog. Phys. 77, 094001 ( 10.1088/0034-4885/77/9/094001) [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
Section 3.3.2 discusses environmental interactions and memory in open quantum systems, but does not address the retention of quantum dynamics in biological systems or fluctuations at biologically relevant length and time scales. Further searches for biological systems, photosynthesis, and those scales found no passage in our copy that addresses the claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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In the paper
“Quantum biology was in fact born shortly after the development of quantum mechanics itself.”
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In the paper
“However, although the most significant findings have emerged in the past two decades, the roots of quantum biology go much deeper—to the quantum pioneers of the early twentieth century.”
- Also stated in: § 1. Introduction · plain
“But while the current interest in quantum biology and the study of the phenomena and mechanisms mentioned above only emerged in the past two decades [18], the origins of the subject go much further back, to the quantum pioneers of the early twentieth century.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [18] Al-Khalili J, McFadden J, 2014, Life on the edge: the coming of age of quantum biology. London, UK: Bantam Press. [Google Scholar]
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- Rests on an assumption: Quantum biology is usually considered to be a new discipline arising from recent research.
- Rests on an assumption: The most significant findings in quantum biology have emerged in the past two decades.
- Also stated in: § 1. Introduction · plain
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Despite Fröhlich's work, most quantum physicists in the second half of the twentieth century became increasingly sceptical about the possibility of non-trivial quantum effects playing a significant role in biology, particularly from studies of open quantum systems and the role of decoherence in destroying the coherence necessary for non-trivial quantum effects.”
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In the paper
“On the other hand, both Jordan and Schrödinger identified a real point of contact between quantum and biological processes that is highly relevant to today's work in quantum biology: macroscopic biological phenomena may be triggered by the dynamics of relatively small numbers of particles whose behaviour will be ruled or at least influenced by the non-trivial quantum phenomena such as uncertainty.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Jordan P. 1941. Die Physik und das Geheimnis des organischen Lebens. Braunschweig, Germany: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn. [Google Scholar]
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“The idea received a quantum twist from the Swedish physicist Per-Olov Löwdin, who proposed [32] that quantum tunnelling of protons could generate the tautomeric bases, thereby providing a physical mechanism for Schrödinger's speculation that random point mutations might have a quantum origin.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [32] Löwdin PO. 1963. Proton tunneling in DNA and its biological implications. Rev. Mod. Phys. 35, 724–732. ( 10.1103/RevModPhys.35.724) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“In the summer of 1932, an interdisciplinary group of scientists at the University of Cambridge set up the Theoretical Biology Club with the ambitious aim of solving ‘the great problem’ of whether life could be explained by the actions of atoms and molecules.”
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In the paper
“In 1935, he was one of three authors (the others being the Russian biologist Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky and the German biophysicist Karl Zimmer) of the landmark paper [28] that also became known as the Dreimännerwerk, in which they proposed that the idea of target theory, introduced by Friedrich Dessauer in Germany in the 1920s, could be used to deduce the size of a gene based on its suscept”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [28] Timofeev-Ressovsky NW, Zimmer KG, Delbrück M. 1935. Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur. Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Goettingen. Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse. Fachgruppe 6, Biologie, vol. 13, p. 190. Berlin, Germany: Weidmannsch Buchhandlung. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“Their ideas culminated in what is arguably the first scientific paper on quantum biology. It was written by Jordan in 1932 and appeared in the German journal Die Naturwissenschaften; the article was entitled ‘Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie’ (‘Quantum mechanics and the fundamental problems of biology and psychology’) [25].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Jordan P. 1932. Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie. Naturwissenschaften 20, 815–821. ( 10.1007/BF01494844) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“There is now growing evidence that this is indeed the case.”
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In the paper
“The murky origins that motivated and sustained his interest in quantum biology are inextricably linked to his political sympathies with Nazi Germany and play an important role in explaining why the field did not flourish further after the war ended.”
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In the paper
“For example, the German physicist Pascual Jordan published a book a year before Schrödinger's, entitled Physics and the Secret of Organic Life [20], in which he had posed the question ‘Sind die Gesetze der Atomphysik und Quantenphysik für die Lebensvorgänge von wesentlicher Bedeutung?’ (‘Are the laws of atomic and quantum physics of essential importance for life?’).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Jordan P. 1941. Die Physik und das Geheimnis des organischen Lebens. Braunschweig, Germany: Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“We will argue that some of the insights provided by these pioneering physicists remain relevant to our understanding of quantum biology today.”
- Also stated in: § 1. Introduction · plain
“We will argue that some of the insights provided by a number of these physicists remain relevant to our understanding of quantum biology today.”
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In the paper
“Quantum biology's origins are often traced back to 1944 and the publication of Erwin Schrödinger's famous book, What is Life? [19]. But even before this, several other quantum physicists had already made inroads into biology.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“In this, Schrödinger was essentially pinpointing the role of the randomizing influence of thermal motion, what we refer to today as ‘environmental decoherence’ [35], which is what separates the quantum from the classical world, an insight that is often traced back to the work of Dieter Zeh [36].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [35] Zurek WH. 2003. Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical. Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 715–775. ( 10.1103/RevModPhys.75.715) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
- Not checked yetcites [36] Zeh HD. 1970. On the interpretation of measurement in quantum theory. Found. Phys. 1, 69–76. ( 10.1007/BF00708656) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“Jordan believed that living organisms were uniquely able to carry out this amplification in a way that was conspicuously different from inanimate matter, such as a Geiger counter.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Jordan P. 1932. Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie. Naturwissenschaften 20, 815–821. ( 10.1007/BF01494844) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“Schrödinger called this principle on which he claimed life depended ‘order from order’, arguing that ‘incredibly small groups of atoms, much too small to display exact statistical laws, do play a dominating role in the very orderly and lawful events within a living organism’ [19, p. 20].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“His ideas influenced many other scientists, including the German physicist Pascual Jordan”
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In the paper
“One of the early proponents of organicism was Ludwig von Bertalanffy, who is generally accepted to have founded the interdisciplinary field called general systems theory, which has since been applied to everything from biology to cybernetics. His work is considered to be among the forerunners of systems biology. In his 1928 book Kritische Theorie der Formbildung (Critical Theory of Morphogenesis)”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [23] von Bertalanffy L. 1928. Kritische theorie der formbildung. Berlin, Germany: Gebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“However, by and large, most biologists continued to believe that life is adequately accounted for by all the familiar statistical laws of classical chemistry and physics.”
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In the paper
“For example, the German-born British physicist Herbert Fröhlich proposed a theory in which quantum mechanical coherence, now known as Fröhlich coherence, plays an important role in biological systems [38--40]. A biological system that attains such a state of coherence is known as a Fröhlich condensate.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38--40]
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In the paper
“Theoretical and experimental approaches have also explored the role of proton tunnelling in the generation of DNA base tautomers [14].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [14] Godbeer AD, Al-Khalili JS, Stevenson PD. 2015. Modelling proton tunnelling in the adenine-thymine base pair. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 13034–13044. ( 10.1039/c5cp00472a) [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“He argued that biological organization was facilitated by coherent excited states at the molecular level, driven by the flow of energy provided by metabolic processes that generate molecular vibrations in terahertz range.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38--40]
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In the paper
“He even claimed that the concept of a single dictatorial leader (Führer), or guide, was a central principle of life:”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Jordan P. 1932. Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie. Naturwissenschaften 20, 815–821. ( 10.1007/BF01494844) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“Longuet-Higgins’s stance was very typical of the attitude towards quantum biology in the second half of the twentieth century, and, to a large extent, this scepticism was wholly justified.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [33] Longuet-Higgins HC. 1962. Quantum mechanics and biology. Biophys. J. 2, 207–215. ( 10.1016/S0006-3495(62)86957-4) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“One such critic was Niels Bohr himself; and yet, as we shall see, it was Bohr's pessimism regarding the importance of quantum mechanics in unlocking the secrets of life that would, paradoxically, influence and inspire the men who would lay the foundations of quantum biology.”
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In the paper
“Physicists similarly dismissed the possibility that quantum effects could play a role in biology, particularly as demonstrating them in inorganic physical systems required an extraordinary level of control that could only be achieved by maintaining systems at temperatures close to absolute zero in a vacuum and shielded from environmental perturbations.”
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In the paper
“Therefore, it was expected that any delicate quantum effects, such as quantum superposition and coherence, will very rapidly dissipate (decohere), resulting in the suppression of any well-controlled quantum dynamics.”
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“Schrödinger was impressed by the extraordinary high fidelity of genetic inheritance, which had been shown to be associated with mutation rates of less than 10–8 per gene per generation. He claimed that high fidelity of heredity could not be accounted for by the classical laws, because genes were too small.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
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- Rests on an assumption: By the 1940s, heredity was known to be governed by genes, but nobody yet knew what genes were made of.
In the paper
“He clarifies his position by arguing that, at the molecular level, life differs from inanimate matter in that it can be influenced on the macroscale by single events at the quantum level,”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [29] Haldane J. 1934. Quantum mechanics as a basis for philosophy. Philos. Sci. 1, 78–98. ( 10.1086/286307) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
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In the paper
“He argued that genetic information had to be encoded at the molecular level as ‘an unusually large molecule which has to be a masterpiece of highly differentiated order, safeguarded by the conjuring rod of quantum theory’ [19, p. 68].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Using target theory, he estimated the size of a gene as no bigger than a cube of sides 300 Å containing a maximum of about 1 million atoms, so the level of noise in heredity if based on the order from disorder principle should be about one in 1000, or 0.1%—clearly much higher than the observed mutation rates.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
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In the paper
“The organicists sought a middle ground. They accepted that there was something mysterious about life but claimed that the mystery could in principle be explained by the laws of physics and chemistry—it is just that these had to be new laws, as yet undiscovered.”
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- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Jordan incorporated the organicism approach into his thinking by claiming that life's missing laws were the rules of chance and probability (the indeterminism) of the quantum world that were somehow scaled up inside living organisms. He called this his ‘amplifier theory’”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Jordan P. 1932. Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie. Naturwissenschaften 20, 815–821. ( 10.1007/BF01494844) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“He settled in Ireland, where in 1944 he published a book whose title posed the question ‘What is life?’ [19], to which we now turn.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Yet Jordan correctly pointed out that inanimate objects were governed by the average random motion of millions of particles, such that the motion of a single molecule has no influence whatsoever on the whole object.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, after Germany's defeat, Jordan's highly politicized ideas became anathema. The other matchmakers of the proposed marriage between biology and fundamental physics were scattered to the four winds in the aftermath of the Second World War; and physics, shaken to its core by the atomic bomb, turned its attention to more traditional problems.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“By the closing years of the 1930s, a number of highly influential scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were examining the implications of the ‘new physics’ for biology, driven by a growing mechanistic picture of biology at the smallest scales, but under the umbrella of organicism.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Jordan's insistence that living organisms have a unique ability to amplify the quantum into the macroscopic world does have a lot of resonance with modern views of quantum biology.”
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Jordan was genuinely sympathetic to fascism and Nazi ideology.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Schrödinger is essentially claiming that living systems somehow circumvent decoherence, an idea that resonates with modern work on the role that environmental noise may play in maintaining coherence in living cells.”
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Nevertheless, it is being increasingly recognized that, just as Jordan and Schrödinger argued, living systems may after all depend on the dynamics of small numbers of molecules that are extremely well localized (extending across just a few nanometres—the scale of biomolecules such as proteins) and can take place over very short time scales (often of the order of picoseconds).”
- Also stated in: § 5. Current thinking · hedged
“This relative isolation in space, complexity and time could allow non-trivial, purely quantum mechanical processes to play an important role in living systems before decoherence induced by the surrounding environment can wash them away.”
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § 5. Current thinking · hedged
In the paper
“Jordan similarly argued that the few molecules that control the dynamics of living cells within the ‘Steuerungszentrum’ have a dictatorial influence, such that quantum-level events that govern their motion, such as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, are amplified to influence the entire organism.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [25] Jordan P. 1932. Die Quantenmechanik und die Grundprobleme der Biologie und Psychologie. Naturwissenschaften 20, 815–821. ( 10.1007/BF01494844) [DOI] [Google Scholar] source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“he claimed that genetic information must be encoded by a ‘more complicated organic molecule in which every atom, and every group of atoms, plays an individual role, not entirely equivalent to that of many others (as is the case in a periodic structure). We might quite properly call that an aperiodic crystal or solid … ’ [19, pp. 60–61].”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [19] Schrödinger E. 1944. What is life? London, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This insight, as we will see, is usually credited to Erwin Schrödinger, who later claimed that life was different from inorganic chemistry because of its dependence on the dynamics of a small number of molecules.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When Watson and Crick published their structure of DNA they speculated that mutations could be caused by tautomerization of DNA bases from their common imino forms to the rare enol forms, which could produce incorrect base pairs during DNA replication.”
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The debate has now shifted from the question of whether quantum coherence and tunnelling are involved to the role that they play.”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is likely that, in that time, life has learned to manipulate quantum systems to its advantage in ways that we do not yet fully understand.”
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Rests on an assumption: Quantum dynamics taking place within living systems have been subject to 3.5 billion years of optimizing evolution.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Other areas of quantum biology, such as olfaction, magnetoreception or mutation, remain more speculative, at least partly because the experimental systems are not as tractable to precise physical measurement.”
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Phenomena such as quantum tunnelling and quantum coherence are now widely accepted as being involved in vitally important processes for all living cells, such as energy transfer and enzyme action.”
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper relies on this without support.
Quantum biology is usually considered to be a new discipline arising from recent research.
“Quantum biology is usually considered to be a new discipline, arising from recent research that suggests that biological phenomena such as photosynthesis, enzyme catalysis, avian navigation or olfaction may not only operate within the bounds of classical physics but also make use of a number of the non-trivial features of quantum mechanics, such as coherence, tunnelling and, perhaps, entanglement.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The most significant findings in quantum biology have emerged in the past two decades.
“However, although the most significant findings have emerged in the past two decades, the roots of quantum biology go much deeper—to the quantum pioneers of the early twentieth century.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Pascual Jordan had been thinking about the question of quantum biology for over a decade and had been using the term Quantenbiologie since the late 1930s.
“In fact, Jordan had been thinking about this question for over a decade and had been using the term Quantenbiologie since the late 1930s.”
The paper relies on this without support.
By the 1940s, heredity was known to be governed by genes, but nobody yet knew what genes were made of.
“By the 1940s, it was known that heredity was governed by genes, but nobody yet knew what genes were made of.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Quantum dynamics taking place within living systems have been subject to 3.5 billion years of optimizing evolution.
“What remains indisputable is that the quantum dynamics that are undoubtedly taking place within living systems have been subject to 3.5 billion years of optimizing evolution.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This quantum phenomenon suggests that energy transfer in biological systems may adhere to quantum mechanical principles rather than classical pathways [51,52].”
From Quantum Models of Consciousness from a Quantum Information Science Perspective (2025) · cites this paper as [52]
In the citing paper
“Research in the field of quantum biology has had some success in identifying how quantum processes might benefit living organisms [1][2][3][4][5] .”
From Quantum effects in the brain: A review (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“However, the mutual exclusion of biological and quantum systems is no longer so absolute.”
From Quantum effects in the brain: A review (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“The avian compass has also been suggested to exploit quantum effects with behavioural evidence supporting the hypothesis.”
From Quantum effects in the brain: A review (2020) · cites this paper as [3]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ 4. Order from order
“These ideas were picked up by some biologists, such as Haldane, who similarly insisted that ‘higher organisms, even protozoa, behave as if their life depended on a number of similar molecules' [31, p. 82].”
§ References
“31.Watson J. 2012. The double helix. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ 1. Introduction
“Quantum biology's origins are often traced back to 1944 and the publication of Erwin Schrödinger's famous book, What is Life? [19]. But even before this, several other quantum physicists had already made inroads into biology. For example, the German physicist Pascual Jordan published a book a year before Schrödinger's, entitled Physics and the Secret of Organic Life [20]”
§ 3. The Cambridge Theoretical Biology Club
“In 1941, he published the book Die Physik und das Geheimnis des organischen Lebens (Physics and the Secret of Life) [20]”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ 3. The Cambridge Theoretical Biology Club
“‘after the victory, it could stand as a symbol and representation of the unbounded means of power of the new Reich’ [32, p. 270]”
§ References
“32.Löwdin PO. 1963. Proton tunneling in DNA and its biological implications. Rev. Mod. Phys. 35, 724–732.”
Citations
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Background
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Timofeev-Ressovsky NW Zimmer KG Delbrück M. 1935 Über die Natur der Genmutation und der Genstruktur . Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Goettingen. Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse. Fachgruppe 6 Biologie vol. 13 p. 190. Berlin Germany: Weidmannsch Buchhandlung.
- Watson J, 2012, The double helix
Cited by
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- McFadden, J., & Al-Khalili, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Surrey (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Al-Khalili, Jim
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2018-12
- Volume
- 474
- Issue
- 2220
- Pages
- 20180674
- ISSN
- 1364-5021 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2946
- PMC
- PMC6304024
- OpenAlex
- W2906308443
- Semantic Scholar
- cf1db8a075db835c265b2cd527234c35d1dc578c
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9
- FWCI
- 1.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Research (University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Surrey Research Insight Open Access (The University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Applications
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy of Biology and Scientific Explanation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
- Keywords
- quantum biology, history of quantum mechanics, quantum coherence, quantum tunneling, quantum entanglement, photosynthesis, enzyme catalysis, avian navigation, olfaction
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-10, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-10 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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