Review Article Communication and the Emergence of ...downloads.hindawi.com/archive/2013/987549.pdf · m apart, a distance ten thousand times the range oftheknownchemicalforces[ ,

Hindawi Publishing CorporationMolecular Biology InternationalVolume 2013 Article ID 987549 19 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552013987549

Review ArticleCommunication and the Emergence of Collective Behavior inLiving Organisms A Quantum Approach

Marco Bischof1 and Emilio Del Giudice2

1 Institute for Transcultural Health Sciences European University Viadrina Grosse Scharrn Strasse 5915230 Frankfurt (Oder) Germany

2 Retired Scientist from Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nucleare (INFN) via Celoria 16 20133 Milano Italy

Correspondence should be addressed to Emilio Del Giudice emiliodelgiudicemiinfnit

Received 15 May 2013 Accepted 4 August 2013

Academic Editor Alessandro Desideri

Copyright copy 2013 M Bischof and E Del Giudice This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work isproperly cited

Intermolecular interactions within living organisms have been found to occur not as individual independent events but as a partof a collective array of interconnected events The problem of the emergence of this collective dynamics and of the correlatedbiocommunication therefore arises In the present paper we review the proposals given within the paradigm of modern molecularbiology and those given by some holistic approaches to biology In recent times the collective behavior of ensembles of microscopicunits (atomsmolecules) has been addressed in the conceptual framework of Quantum Field Theory The possibility of producingphysical states where all the components of the ensemble move in unison has been recognized In such cases electromagnetic fieldstrappedwithin the ensemble appear In the present paper we present a scheme based onQuantumFieldTheory wheremolecules areable to move in phase-correlated unison among them and with a self-produced electromagnetic field Experimental corroborationof this scheme is presented Some consequences for future biological developments are discussed

1 Introduction

A living organism is fundamentally different from anonlivingsystemThere are basically twomain differencesThe first oneis the capability of self-movement namely a living organismis able to pursue autonomously the direction of its ownmotion whereas a nonliving object can be only pushed orpulled by an externally applied force The second differenceis that the dynamics of each component depends on thesimultaneous dynamics of the other components so that theensemble of components behaves in unison in a correlatedway It is just this collective dynamics which makes possiblethe self-movement of the system allowing a continuouschange of the organism without disrupting its fundamentalunityThis property ismissing in nonliving systemswhich arefundamentally passive The main actor of the time evolutionof the organism is not the ensemble of molecules but theensemble of their correlations

For this reason we cannot assume that the molecularcomponents of a living organism are independent molecules

moving in a diffusive way but we are forced to assume aholistic dynamics able to preserve the unity of the organismamidst a huge number of externally applied stimuli andchallenges In particular molecules encounter each other inthe organism not at random but apparently according toldquoorganic codesrdquo evolving in space and time as for examplethe genetic code [1] This means that molecules which takenindividually can interact chemically with any kind of othermolecules acquire within the living organism the property ofselecting their chemical partners according to codes evolvingin time

In this framework the problem of communicationbecomes a crucial issue in the understanding of livingorganisms The existence of this array of molecular commu-nications able to adapt to a wide number of external stimuliand constraints is a permanent feature of every organismwhich disappears at death onlyThe array of communicationsamong molecules does not depend on external causes but isinherent in the modus operandi of the molecular dynamicsIn otherwords the spreading of information about each event

2 Molecular Biology International

depends on the same dynamics which produces the eventBiochemical reactions and the spreading of informationabout them should be two different aspects of the samedynamics and in particular do not need additional expensesof energy

The problem of biocommunication has been addressedin recent times within the frame of the molecular paradigmwhich states that a living organism is an ensemble of appro-priate molecules kept together solely by chemical forceswhose essential features are that they can be always reducedto pairwise interactions In this frame the problem ofcommunication has been reduced to the ligand-receptormodel as described in Section 2 In Section 2 we will describethe historical development of the attempts to this kind ofexplanation However the final result is unsatisfactory atleast for two reasons First the existence of chemical codesremains unexplained since no reason is given why amoleculeis able to encounter its molecular partner in the sequenceunderlying the given biological cycle just in the right place atthe right time this would demand a long-range recognitionand attraction among molecules The second reason is thatthe spreading of information about each molecular eventto the other component molecules of the organism wouldrequire the emission of signals such as chemical messengersor electromagnetic signals whose formation would requireenergyThe huge ensemble of all the signals necessary to keepother parts of the organism informed about what is going onin one part so that they are able to act in an holistic waywould demand an immense consumption of energy On thecontrary we know that the energy demands of an organismare quite moderate [2]

Therefore we are compelled to opt for a differentparadigm which is offered naturally by modern quantumfield theory [3ndash5] According to Quantum Physics eachobject cannot but fluctuate not only material particles butalso fields are undergoing spontaneous fluctuations that isfluctuations occurring without any external supply of energyUnder conditions clarified by the theorywhichwewill shortlydescribe in Section 4 the quantum fluctuations of manyobjects are able to correlate with their phases producing acommon oscillation of all the components in unison Thesystem therefore enters into a state which in the physicaljargon is termed ldquocoherent staterdquo The energy of an ensembleof components in a coherent state is lower than the energyof the same ensemble in a noncoherent state since theonset of coherence eliminates all the ldquouselessrdquo movements ofcomponents which give rise to the entropy of the system andconcentrates the energy on a smaller number of degrees offreedom able to use this energy to produce external work [6ndash9] This property of coherent systems could implement therequirements of Prigogine for dissipative structures [10] Inorder to abide by the second law of thermodynamics theprocess of energy concentration demands that some energyshould be released outwards so that in order to becomecoherent a system should be an open system In a coherentsystem made up of atomsmolecules there is therefore aphysical field able to keep the long-range correlation amongthe components [11] This correlation field can be shownto be just the electromagnetic potential whose space-time

derivatives give rise to the well-known electromagnetic fields[12] Therefore what keeps the molecular components corre-lated among them not in a pairwise way but in a truly collec-tive many-body way is not the electromagnetic field whoseproduction would demand energy but the electromagneticpotential whose appearance in a coherent system produces anet saving of energy [13ndash17]The physical variable responsiblefor correlation in this vision is not the energy but the phaseof the system We will discuss this point further in Section 3Recently strong experimental evidence about the existenceof coherent correlations among biomolecules and the role ofelectromagnetism in biocommunication has been reported[18 19]

The perspective outlined above emerges from modernQuantum Physics whose validity in the understanding ofelementary particles atoms and molecules has been fullyestablished in the last century Moreover this approachcontrary to the physics of the past either Classical Physicsor old quantum mechanics does not allow us to addressphysical objects in isolation but only as parts of an extendedreality the field where its connectedness with other objectsis pivotal The communications among all the componentsof the physical systems occur via quantum fluctuationswhich cannot be reduced to the actual fluctuations of thecomponents but also include the fluctuations of the vacuumThe vacuum therefore could be assumed to be an agent forthe spreading of communication among components [20]Quantum FieldTheory only recently has been able to get outof themicroscopicworld of elementary particles and has beenused to analyzemacroscopic systems too such as crystals andsuperconductors It can be proposed as a good candidate forunderstanding living organisms [3ndash5]

The aim of the present paper is to provide first a conciseoverview of the historical development of the problem ofbiocommunication and of the formation of a collectivedynamics in living organisms second to point out thedeficiencies of the purely molecular approach and the needfor coherence in the living dynamics and third to sketch theconceptual framework offered by Quantum Field Theory forthe understanding of the onset of coherence in matter andliving organisms

The paper is organized as follows In Section 2 we willdescribe the problem of biocommunication and the emer-gence of collective behaviorwithin themolecular paradigmofbiology In Section 3 wewill discuss the contributions offeredby approaches to biology different from molecular biologyin Section 4 we will introduce and discuss the possibilitiesprovided by the quantum field theoretical approach inSection 5 we present some experimental corroborations forthis approach and finally in Section 6 we will draw someconclusions and provide some outlook

2 The Molecular Approach toBiocommunication

Biological communication conventionally is assumed tobe entirely chemically mediated Modern views still are

Molecular Biology International 3

fundamentally based on Ehrlichrsquos ligand-receptor model stat-ing that biological reactions can only be elicited bymessengermolecules (such as hormones and neurotransmitters) bind-ing to receptors (which can be cell-membrane bound onescytoplasmic proteins or other molecules) Clarkrsquos ldquoreceptoroccupation theoryrdquo in 1933 postulated four rules for the actionof transmitter substances on receptors (1) the effect increasesproportionally with the number of occupied receptors (2) foreach receptorrsquos action an ldquoall-or-nothingrdquo response applies(3) substrate molecule and receptor fit in a ldquolock-and-keyrdquofashion and (4) the occupation of one receptor does notinterfere with the function of other receptors [21]

Although a great number of bioreceptors have beenfound for a number of reasons there has been growingcriticism of this model [22ndash25] This static and mechanisticapproach implies biological response to be strictly local andlinear (the response is proportional to the stimulus) Alreadythe first attempt to extend the model undertaken in 1961 byPaton implicitly questioned the receptor hypothesis Patonrsquosldquorate theoryrdquo which is in much better agreement with expe-rience states that the number of contacts between receptorand transmitter molecules is essential for biological efficacy[26] Thus chemical communication acquires a fundamentaldynamic aspect Secondly the control of the dissociation andassociation rate of the receptor-transmitter complex becomesa central part of the regulatory function Thus communica-tion is not any more restricted to the structural level that isthe structural manifold of biochemical messenger moleculesany factor able to influence the coupling of molecules (ie anelectromagnetic coupling) has to be taken into consideration

The regulation of the binding activity as well as that ofsubsequent steps that typically involve signal amplificationtoward some biological response is today thought to be chem-ical as well But the discovery of chemical messengers andreceptors which doubtlessly has greatly enlarged biologicalunderstanding may not be the last word about biologicalcommunication They may turn out to be necessary but notsufficient mediators of cellular communication Their identi-fication still leaves open some essential questions of biologicalcommunication such as What coordinates the biologicalprocesses What directs the right number of moleculesneeded at the right time to the right place How does thecoupling to the receptor trigger the ensuing response Alsothere are indications that the speed of the signal conveyedat least in some biological communication processes clearlyexceeds the speed range of molecular transmission

The biochemical model of signal transmission clearlyneeds a biophysical complement Such a complement hasbeen proposed for the surface receptor-cytoplasm commu-nication across the membrane According to Adey the glyco-proteins on the cell surface which mediate the cell-cell recog-nition also can act as antennae for em signals [27] After thetransmission across the membrane the signal is propagatedto the cytoplasm by cytoskeleton-mediated events in whichagain em processes may be involved [28 29]

The same doubts apply to the coupling of molecules inbiochemical reactions The task of studying the individualbiochemical reactions in vitro has been so enormous andabsorbing that little work has been devoted to the question

of how the reactions are organized and how the reactantsare moved in vivo As Rowlands remarks it is inconceivablethat the cell has to wait for the chaotic Brownian motion(and diffusion for this matter) to accomplish these things bychance [30] Therefore we must come to the same conclu-sion as Szent-Gyorgyi [31] who stated that biologists mightnot be able to formally distinguish between ldquoanimaterdquo andldquoinanimaterdquo things because they concentrate on studyingsubstances to the neglect of two matrices without whichthese substances cannot perform any functionsmdashwater andelectromagnetic fields

21 Intermolecular and Intercellular Recognition AlreadyWeiss has pointed to the fact that cells can recognize eachother and their surroundings and can find their properdestinations in the organism even when customary routesare blocked [32 33] Additionally cells of the same typetend to aggregate and actively preserve this aggregation notonly in the body but also in vitro Mutual recognitionbetween cells of the same type later has been shown fordissociated liver and kidney cells from a vertebrate embryo[34] The aggregation of identical cells (liver-liver kidney-kidney) takes place at a faster rate than that of themixed cellsThe mechanisms of this tissue-specific recognition are notyet understood Rowlands found that erythrocytes activelyattract each other to form rouleaux when the cell membranesare still 4 120583m apart a distance ten thousand times the rangeof the known chemical forces [35 36] He suggests that long-range cell interactions of this type are also responsible forthe very fast attraction of platelets to the cells of a damagedcell wall and may also underlie the ability of leukocytes toactively look for and destroy elements foreign to the hostorganism Bistolfi proposes that this effect may explain thepreference of neoplastic metastases for certain target organs[25] Weiss in 1959 has asked the questions that biology todaystill has not been able to answer satisfactorily [32 33] Howdo mixed cell populations achieve this Do like cells attracteach other Do they recognize each other only after chanceencounters Weiss was convinced that these phenomenaare of the same general nature than immune reactionsenzyme-substrate interactions the pairing of chromosomesfertilization parasite infection and phagocytosis

Itmaywell be thatwe are dealingwith amechanism that iseven more general and on the microscopic side also extendsto atomic and molecular interactions and to interactionsbetween organisms on the macroscopic side Already Pres-man has proposed that a long-range em mechanism maybe responsible for the recognition between macromoleculessuch as between enzyme and substrate DNA and RNA andantigen and antibody and between cells [37] According toRowlands the phenomenon of erythrocyte attraction showsthe existence of a species-specific electromagnetic ultralong-range interaction a mechanism by which similar cells mayrecognize each other and join up [36] Paul has explainedthese long-range forces between human blood cells by the useof coherent states of the em field [38] An interpretation ofthese phenomena in terms of a coherent dynamics has beenproposed by Del Giudice et al [29 35]


As we will see such a mechanism of em communicationon all levels of biological organization constitutes an essentialelement of an electromagnetic theory of the living organismBiological functions such as the control of enzymatic activityphotorepair and immunological functions particularly areobviously based on some process of pattern recognition andthus suggest understanding in terms of coherent interactions[39]

22 Long-Range em Forces in Molecular Interaction As tothemicroscopic level we need a newway to look atmolecularinteractions which fits to the field picture of life Of themanyfactors able to influence the coupling of molecules the elec-tromagnetic fieldmay be the essential one As Bistolfi pointedout the chemical structure of biomolecules is not in itselfenough to characterize intermolecular recognition interac-tions [25] The wide range of chemical shift values as deter-mined by NMR shows that organic molecules not only differin their chemical structure but also in the way they resonatewhen adequately stimulated that is in their electromagneticpatterns Thus Bistolfi postulates that resonance capacity in amore general sense than that appearing inNMR spectroscopymust be consideredmdashsince not only the paramagnetic nucleibut also the molecular structures are involved in it Bistolfitakes this evidence from NMR to be a good indirect indi-cation of the existence of long-range frequency-dependentem intermolecular interactions Frazer and Frazer postulatethat em radiation emitted by functional groups onmoleculesinduces specific orientationsconformationsalignments incomplementary molecules and thereby generates an elec-tromagnetically induced geometrical ldquotemplaterdquo of the twomolecular regions [40]

Molecules themselves have to be considered as orderedelectromagnetic structures [41 42] Their shape and sta-bility depend on the delicate balance of em interactionsbetween neighbouring atoms The main factors in molecularinteraction in the conventional quantum chemical vieware the spatial conformation of the molecules involved andthe charge distribution of the valence electrons (chemicalpotentials) It is primarily the charge distribution on thesurface of molecules that determines their physical andchemical properties such as bonding ability orientationand mutual position When the geometrical configurationof two molecules fits in such a way that a minimum of the(electrical) Coulomb potentials of the valence electrons isachieved a chemical bonding can take placeHowever chargedistribution through its time variations is also responsiblefor the properties of the em radiation which moleculesemit such as polarization spatial distribution and directionand for their interaction with impinging radiation Theinteraction of radiation with matter is only possible throughredistribution of charge Structural changes in the moleculesentail charge shifts and thus changes in the em field envelopeof the molecule which may be the real mediator of themoleculersquos interaction with other molecules

A field approach to intermolecular interaction is funda-mental to any electromagnetic model of living organismsLi suggests using the De Broglie wave picture of matter

in looking at nonradiative interaction between particles[43ndash45] In this view atomic orbits represent interferencepatterns of electron waves within their coherence (or uncer-tainty) volumeThe attractive superposition of the quantum-mechanical wave functions in the case of the bonding oftwo hydrogen atoms is identified to destructive interferenceof their electron waves while the repulsive superposition ofthe wave functions in the antibonding case is equated tothe constructive interference of the electron waves In atomsand molecules thus the same mechanism is seen at work asthat used to explain Gallersquos observations on the ultraweakbioluminescence of Daphnia aggregations [46] According toPopprsquos biophoton theory the same kind of approach can beused for the case of atoms and molecules influencing eachother only bymeans of the radiation field when for instancethe same two atoms are sufficiently separated that no electronwave function overlap is possible [43ndash45] As long as two(or more) radiating atoms or molecules remain within thecoherence length they can be arbitrarily far apart and stillexhibit some correlation effectWithin the coherence volumewhich is the region within which the wave remains coherentthe photons emitted are completely delocalizedThe exchangeof photons between the particles builds interference patternsthe basis of a communication linkage among the particleswhich thereby form a complex cooperative system that has tobe considered as awhole Aswell as to the interaction betweenatoms and molecules this model applies to the interactionbetweenmacromolecules and cell components between cellsand between organisms in populations

More recently Irena Cosic has presented a ldquoResonantRecognition Modelrdquo of biomolecular interaction which pos-tulates that these interactions are of electromagnetic nature[41 42 47 48] Based on the finding that proteins produceelectromagnetic emission and absorption in the range ofinfrared and visible light Cosic proposes that moleculesrecognize their targets by electromagnetic resonance and thatelectromagnetic waves are also used by them to influenceeach other at a distance and to attract molecular partnersBymeans of electromagnetic resonance selective interactionsare taking place at distances greatly exceeding the range ofchemical interactions However even if it brings a laudableprogress in the right direction Cosicrsquos model is fraughtwith the serious deficiency of not considering the actualphysical value of the photon-atom cross-section governingthe electromagnetic interaction of atoms which is in factquite small If the em field is assumed to be as in the usualcase a flow of photons travelling at the speed of light andtherefore having a small probability of encountering atomsthe Cosic proposal has a small chance of explaining the actualbiological interaction However the Cosic proposal assumesa very important value when it is included within a dynamicsable to put in a sense the em field ldquoat restrdquo that is to trapit within a self-produced cavity as we will see in Section 3In this case the coupling between the em field and themolecules is greatly increased We will see in Section 4 thatthis occurrence is produced by the presence of water whoseessential role is usually neglected in the biological modellingThis crucial role of water in intermolecular interaction is alsoneglected in Cosicrsquos model As a matter of fact molecular


interactions within a biological organism are not taking placein the empty space but they occur in an aqueous mediumsince water as we will point out in Section 4 is the mainconstituent of living matter

23 The Dicke Theory The formation of ldquoelectromagneticcavitiesrdquo in living matter appears as an essential task for elu-cidating the biomolecular interaction dynamics In modernphysics the formation of coherent electromagnetic fields hasbeen historically connected with the development of laser Assaid above the appearance of a coherent field occurs in thepresence of an external supply of energy a pump in the phys-ical jargon Moreover an externally supplied cavity whosesize allows us to select a specific wavelength of the coherentfield is needed Coherence appears when suitable boundaryconditions are met and only when the system is pumpedHowever this could not be the case for living systems whereno pumps and cavities are provided from outside A firstcontribution to the solution of this problem has been offeredby Dicke [49 50] whose theory justifies the occurrence ofa large increase of the field energy (superradiance) togetherwith the appearance of the typical quantum phenomenonknown as stimulated emission radiation (superfluorescence)In the present paper we do not deal with the complete Dicketheory but only with its application proposed by Li tothe emergence of coherence without an externally providedcavity Lirsquosmodel is based on the radiation theory advanced byDicke in 1954 according to which for distances between twoemitters smaller than the wavelength of the light emitted theemission must happen cooperatively and the field betweenthe emitters cannot be random but has to be coherentThe better this ldquoDicke conditionrdquo is fulfilled the more thecoherence increases The emitters then cannot be consideredas independent individuals because they are embedded inand interactingwith a common radiation field Being coupledwith the same em field they are part of a communicatingsystem and are continuously getting information about eachother Moreover the coherent em field is not emitted out ofthe ensemble of molecules to which it is coupled but is keptwithin it so this case could be termed subradianceThis prop-erty will be a major feature of the quantum electrodynamics(QED) treatment given in Section 4

For the optical range of ultralow bioluminescence (bio-photons) the Dicke condition is always fulfilled in biopoly-mers within the cell DNA fulfills it optimally as the distancesbetween base pairs (3 Angstrom) are much smaller than thewavelength of visible light (sim5000 A) For the volume of thecell it is fulfilled for longer wavelengths such as microwaves

Popp postulates that destructive and constructive inter-ference between radiating sources of biological systems(biomolecules organelles cells organs organisms and pop-ulations) may play a central role in biological organization[51] Within the coherence volume between the emittingsystems the radiation may sustain a coherent interferencefield for considerable lengths of time By the mechanism ofdestructive interference which leads to the cancellation offorce vectors the system can trap photons and thereby storeenergy On the other hand by constructive interference in

the coherence volume between the radiators stored photonsare released This is equivalent to the creation of a pho-tochemical potential and constitutes a basic mechanism ofenergy transfer and of communicationThe samemechanismalso creates long-range attraction and repulsion forces in thecoherence volume between identical systems by which pat-tern formation and cell adhesion may be achieved This forcedoes not depend on electrical charges or magnetic momentsonly on coherence length the amount of stored energy andthe Planck constant Its order of magnitude may amount to10ndash12119873 or even more Li contends that the theory of Dicke isa major breakthrough in radiation theory as fundamental asPlanckrsquos and is universal for the discussion of all real systemsincluding biological systems whilst the realm of validityof Planckrsquos theory is an ensemble of independent radiatorsin thermal equilibrium [43] The nature of the interactionbetween particles that the conventional approach visualizesas a random mechanical collision of isolated hard ball-likeparticles thus is promoted to a highly ordered communicativeand cooperative interconnectedness in a connecting field

As Dicke himself stated his theory also is an alterna-tive formulation of the laser concept The usual technicalapproach of engineers treats ldquothe laser as a feedback amplifierthe amplification being treated as resulting from stimulatedemission the upper energy state having an excess populationThe second approach treats the laser not as an amplifier butrather as a source of spontaneous emission of radiation withthe emission process taking place coherentlyrdquo [50]

The Dicke theory meanwhile has found full experimentalconfirmation [52] It is an important predecessor of thequantum field approach we will present in Section 4 in that itfirst suggested how the electromagnetic field can be trappedwithin matter thereby forming a novel form of matter-fieldunity and giving rise to a laser-like process However it stillconsiders the collective interaction as an ensemble of two-body interactions and therefore cannot fully account for theembedded and interactive nature of all living systems

3 Supramolecular Approaches toCommunication and the Emergence ofOrder in Biology

In the first half of the 20th century a number of holisticapproaches to biology based on long-range correlationsbetween molecules and cells have been developed mainlyin developmental biology [15 16] They were part of acountermovement to the reductionist program of the ldquoBerlinschoolrdquo of physically oriented physiologists among themEmil DuBois-Reymond andHermann vonHelmholtz whosework laid the foundations formolecular biology and scientificmedicine The development was initiated by the contro-versy between Wilhelm Roux and Hans Driesch about theirembryological experiments with frog and urchin eggs inthe late 1880s and early 1890s where Driesch showed thatin the early stages of development the embryo possessedthe faculty of regulation that is was able to develop into awhole organism evenwhen parts were damaged or destroyedDriesch concluded that the state of each part of the organized


whole of the organism was dynamically codetermined by theneighbouring parts such that there is a relational structurebetween the parts that is specific for the organism Biologicalfunction was dependent on the position within the wholenot on the mechanical preformation of parts as Roux hadassumed Therefore Driesch countered Rouxrsquo mechanisticldquomosaic theory of developmentrdquo with his own theory ofa vitalistic ldquoentelechyrdquo a field-like factor responsible fororganismic form and structure that he deemed not accessibleto scientific investigation

Drieschrsquos vitalistic challenge caused a fundamental crisisin developmental biology which led to a reformulation ofbasic concepts in experimental embryology and cell biol-ogy At first a number of outstanding biologists followedDriesch by assuming one of several kinds of neovitalisticstances among them Jacob von Uexkull John Scott HaldaneConstantin von Monakow and Richard Semon but by 1930the movement culminated in a series of proposals for anonvitalistic alternative to mechanistic biology under thename of holism or organicism This group of approachesfar from being marginal played a considerable role inEuropean American and Russian biology from the 1920s tothe 1950s Inspired by thework of Spemann on ldquoinducersrdquo andldquoorganizersrdquo [53] a number of mainly British and Americanbiologists among them Paul Weiss Joseph Needham RossHarrison Conrad Waddington and Alexander Gurwitschset out to identify the organizing principles in developingsystems by careful analysis on the level of tissues [54 55] Inthe work of these scientists the concept of a ldquobiological fieldrdquoor ldquomorphogenetic fieldrdquo emerged as a central metaphor foruniting both the organizer and the organized tissues and forunderstanding the integrating and organizing principles inorganisms Implicitly the field properties of living organismswere already recognized in Drieschrsquos 1891 suggestion that thewhole embryo was a ldquoharmonious equipotential systemrdquoThefield concept was introduced into biology by Gurwitsch [56]and by Weiss [57] who also first proposed to use the conceptof ldquosystemrdquo in biology in 1924 Weiss who had trained asan engineer and was well grounded in the physical sciencesfirst used it to explain the results of his and othersrsquo work onlimb regeneration in amphibians but later generalized it toontogeny as a whole In 1925ndash1930 he concluded from hiswork on bone regeneration that a ldquolimb fieldrdquo was directingdifferentiation in the amputated stump it was a propertyof the field district as a whole and not of a particulardiscrete group of elements In the 1940s his studies onnerve orientation in repair and growth processes led himto think that tissue behaves as a coherent unit In the 1950sWeiss investigated chondrogenesis (cartilage formation) andspecified the role of tissue environment in general andof mechanical stresses in particular in the differentiationof mesenchyme cells into cartilage The observation thatprecartilaginous cells of different types developed in cellculture into the respective specific type of cartilage accordingto the in vivo pattern convinced him that they possessedhighly specific fields with

distinctive morphogenetic properties determiningthe particular pattern of cell grouping proliferation

and deposition of ground substance which in duecourse lead to the development of a cartilage of adistinctive and typical shape [58]

Weiss referred to the ordering processes leading to theemergence of organ and tissue structuring during develop-ment as ldquofield actionsrdquo but emphasized that this should notbe taken as an explanation He defined the biological field as

a condition to which a living system owes its typicalorganization and its specific activitiesThese activitiesare specific in that they determine the character ofthe formations to which they give rise ( ) Inasmuchas the action of fields does produce spatial order itbecomes a postulate that the field factors themselvespossess definite order The three-dimensional hetero-geneity of developing systems that is the fact thatthese systems have different properties in the threedimensions of space must be referred to a three-dimensional organization and heteropolarity of theorganizing fields [59]

The fields were specific that is each species of organismhad its own morphogenetic field Within the organism therewere subsidiary fields within the overall field of the organismthus producing a nested hierarchy of fields within fields

The Russian embryologist and histologist Alexander GGurwitsch was the first to introduce the field concept intobiology in 1922 under the name of ldquoembryonal or morpho-genetic fieldrdquo [60]

The place of the embryonal formative process is afield (in the usage of the physicists) the boundaries ofwhich in general do not coincide with those of theembryo but surpass them Embryogenesis in otherwords comes to pass inside the fields ( )Thus whatis given to us as a living system would consist of thevisible embryo (or egg resp) and a field [56]

While Drieschrsquos entelechy was of the ldquoAristotelian typerdquo ofbiological fields [61] that is organizing principles immanentto the organism evolving with the organism and playing acausal role in organizing the material systems under theirinfluence Gurwitschrsquos morphogenetic fields rather belongto the ldquoPlatonic typerdquo that is they are eternal changelesstranscendent forms or ideas of essentially mathematical orgeometric naturemdashldquospatial but immaterial factors of mor-phogenesisrdquo However although inspired by Driesch in con-trast to the German scientist Gurwitsch was determined toput the hypothesis of the biological field to the experimentaltest In experiments first with onion roots and later withmany other organisms cells and tissues he discovered whathe called ldquomitogenetic radiationrdquo and today is known asldquoultraweak photon emissionrdquo or ldquobiophoton emissionrdquo anultraweak electromagnetic broad-band (200ndash800 nm) radia-tion emitted by practically all living organisms [51 62 63]With his suggestion that the morphogenetic field produces athermodynamic nonequilibrium in the molecular ensemblesof cells and tissues and that on the other hand the potentialenergy released by the decomposition of such excited non-equilibrium molecular complexes can be transformed into


kinetic energy leading to directedmovement of substance hebecame one of the early proponents of what is today knownas dissipative structures

Although the field concepts of these early 20th cen-tury biologists referred to the model of physical especiallyelectromagnetic fields the organicists generally consideredthe biological field as a purely heuristic concept a tool forunderstanding the phenomena of development regenerationand morphogenesis and for making predictions for experi-mental testing Even those of them tending to the Aristotelianposition usually preferred not to go beyond the analogy andto leave the exact nature of the fields open The notion ofreal electrical electromagnetic or otherwise physical fields oflong-range force carried too clearly vitalist implications forthem On the other hand to their taste the ideal stronglygeometrical fields of Gurwitsch were too dematerialized andtoo far from biochemical reality [54] ForWeiss [59] the fieldconcept was also a mean to remain open as to the nature ofthe organizing factors as long as the tools for determining itwere not adequate It seems that at that time both biologyand physics were not yet enough developed to accommodatesuch a possibility In physics there was neither enoughexperimental evidence for the existence of electromagneticfields in living organisms nor for the biological effects of emfields and the implications of quantum theory for a fieldperspective of life were not yet recognized

Another reason for the late acceptance of the electromag-netic aspect of organisms was the success of the biochemicalapproach to life Among the several reasons quoted in [64]for the fact that the concept of the biological field has almostcompletely vanished from biology in the 1950s the mostimportant one was the rise of genetics as an alternativeprogram to explain development In the 1930s the biologicalfield had been a clear alternative to the gene as the basic unitof ontogeny and phylogeny and this was seen as a threat tothe rise of genetics as the leading field of biology This wasthe reason why Thomas Hunt Morgan one of the foundersof modern genetics and himself originally a developmentalbiologist actively fought the concept of the morphogeneticfield and tried to denounce and ridicule it in all possibleways although Morgan was not able to present any evidenceagainst fields [64ndash66] With the breakthrough of geneticallyoriented molecular biology through Watson and Crickrsquos 1953model of DNA field theories were definitely out [63] andthe predominance of the biochemical-molecular approach inbiology began as we know it today

However today the situation has changed again Sincethe early 1980s the group of ldquostructural biologistsrdquo aroundBrian C Goodwin has advocated the concept of the bio-logical field as an adequate basis for a unified theoreticalbiology [67ndash69] They state that field properties of organismsunderlie both reproduction and regeneration which sharethe essential feature that from a part a whole is generated[69] Reproduction is not to be understood in terms ofWeismannrsquos germ plasm or DNA but rather as a processarising from field properties of the living stateThey postulatea feedback loop between morphogenetic fields and geneactivity the fields generate ordered spatial heterogeneitiesthat can influence gene activities gene products in turn

can influence the fields destabilizing certain patterns andstabilizing othersMore recently a group of leading biologistsGilbert Opitz and Raff have challenged the adequacy ofgenetics for alone explaining evolution and the devaluationof morphology and have demanded the rehabilitation of thebiological field [64 66] They suggest that evolutionary anddevelopmental biology should be reunited by a new synthesisin which morphogenetic fields are proposed to mediatebetween genotype and phenotype and to be a major factor inontogenetic and phylogenetic changes Gene products shouldbe seen as first interacting to create morphogenetic fields inorder to have their effects changes in these fields would thenchange the ways in which organisms develop

Serious progress in bioelectromagnetic field theoryalthough there were earlier precursors like Keller [70] Crile[71] Lund [72] and Lakhovsky [73] started not before thework ofHarold S Burr [74 75] andPresman [37]The conceptof Burr and Northrop based on Burrrsquos work on bioelectricpotentials is summarized in the following quote

The pattern of organization of any biological systemis established by a complex electro-dynamic fieldwhich is in part determined by its atomic physico-chemical components and which in part determinesthe behavior and orientation of those componentsThis field is electrical in the physical sense and byits properties it relates the entities of the biologicalsystem in a characteristic pattern and is itself in parta result of the existence of those entities It deter-mines and is determined by the components Morethan establishing pattern it must maintain patternin the midst of a physicochemical flux Thereforeit must regulate and control living things it mustbe the mechanism the outcome of whose activity isldquowholenessrdquo organization and continuityThe electro-dynamic field then is comparable to the entelechyof Driesch the embryonic field of Spemann thebiological field of Weiss [74]

The groundbreaking work of Presman marks the begin-ning ofmodern em field theories for biology [37] He arguedthat environmental em fields have played some if not acentral role in the evolution of life and also are involved inthe regulation of the vital activity of organisms Living beingsbehave as specialized and highly sensitive antenna systemsfor diverse parameters of weak fields of the order of strengthof the ambient natural ones According to Presman emfields play an important role in the communication and coor-dination of physiological systems within living organismsand alsomediate the interconnection between organisms andthe environment However bioelectromagnetic field theoriesonly recently have reached a certain maturity due to thegeneral progress in electromagnetic theory bioelectromag-netics and particularly non-equilibrium thermodynamicsand quantum theory [76] Mainly this was achieved in thework of Herbert Froehlich and what could be called theFroehlich school of biophysics including the Prague group ofPokorny and the Kiev group of Davydov and Brizhik in thequantum field theoretical approach of Umezawa Preparata


Del Giudice and Vitiello and in the biophoton research ofthe Popp group in Germany

4 A Quantum Field Approach to BiologicalDynamics and Biocommunication

Quantum Physics has emerged from a major paradigm shiftwith respect to Classical Physics which still provides theframework of the vision of nature of most scientists Thischange of paradigm has not yet been completely grasped bycontemporary science so that not all the implications of thischange have been realized hitherto The classical paradigmassumes that every physical object can be isolated from anyexternal influence and can be studied independently of otherobjects Since the system is isolated the relevant physicalvariables can be unambiguously defined and assume specificvalues which remain constant in time in this way we areable to derive a number of principles of conservation such asfor instance of energy momentum and angular momentumIn this scheme change and movement can emerge only by asupply of adequate quantities of such variables from outsideMatter is consequently considered inert and can move only ifacted upon by an external agent applying a force

Therefore physical reality is assumed to be a collection ofseparate objects for instance atoms having an independent apriori existence kept together by external forces whose exis-tence demands a suitable space-time distribution of energyThe formation of an aggregate of atoms requires thereforean adequate supply of energy the same requirement appliesto every change of its configuration The components of anaggregate are considered to have the same nature when theyare isolated and when they are aggregated the interaction isnot changing their nature and remains somehow peripheral

The quantum paradigm not only gets rid of the concept ofinert matter but also denies the possibility to simultaneouslydefine all the variables of a physical system Every physicalobject (either a material particle or a field) is conceivedas intrinsically fluctuating its definition should thereforeinvolve a phase 120593 It exhibits different aspects not simul-taneously compatible when addressed from different pointsof view This amounts to the choice of different subsetsof mutually compatible variables to define the system andtherefore to different representations of it Physical variablesare therefore grouped into families of compatible variablesDifferent families cannot be defined simultaneously so thatthe principle of complementarity holds that different familiesof variables once defined give rise to different pictures of thesame object not simultaneously compatible among them

An important outcome of Quantum Physics concernsthe concept of localizability of an object Quantum Physicssupports the objection against localizability raised by Zenoof Elea who used to say that a flying arrow is not movingsince it is at each moment of time in its own place Inthis context a role is played by the quite subtle conceptof the quantum vacuum [20] The strict definition of thevacuum is the minimum energy state of a physical systemThe energy of the vacuum should be conceived as the energynecessary to maintain the bare existence of the system

However since a quantum system cannot be ever at rest(in Quantum Physics there is a ldquohorror quietisrdquo ie ldquofearof restingrdquo) the vacuum should contain the energy relatedto the systemrsquos quantum fluctuations However quantumfluctuations cannot be observed directly and their existencemust be inferred from indirect evidence Consequentlyphysicists are forced to formulate a principle of invariance ofthe Lagrangian (the mathematical function which gives riseto the equations of motion from which the actual behaviorof the system is inferred) with respect to arbitrary changesof the local phase of the system (the so-called local phaseinvariance of the Lagrangian) In the following we describeits consequences in nonmathematical terms The local phaseinvariance is shown to hold if a field exists which is connectedto the space-time derivatives of the phase In the case of asystem made up of electrically charged components (nucleiand electrons of atoms) as for instance a biological systemthis is just the electromagnetic (em) potential A120583 where 120583is the index denoting the four space-time coordinates 1199090 =119888119905 1199091 1199092 1199093 The electric and magnetic fields are suitablecombinations of the space-time derivatives of A120583 In orderto get the local phase invariance we should assume that theLagrangian is invariant with respect to specific changes ofthe field A120583 Thus a specific principle of invariance namedldquogauge invariancerdquo emerges hence the name ldquogauge fieldrdquodenotes A120583 Actually it is well known that the Maxwellequations just obey the gauge invariance which in QuantumPhysics becomes the natural partner of the phase invarianceto produce our world quantum fluctuations give rise to empotentials which spread the phase fluctuations beyond thesystem at the phase velocity This gives an intrinsic nonlo-calizability to the system and prevents a direct observationof quantum fluctuations Through the em potential thesystem gets a chance to communicate with other systemsNotice that all em interactions occur in a two-level waythe potential keeps the interacting particles phase-correlatedwhereas the combination of its space-time derivatives namedem field accounts for the forces involved The lower levelthe potential becomes physically observable only when thephase of the system assumes a precise value The structure ofelectrodynamics makes possible the presence of a potentialalso when both electric and magnetic fields are absentwhereas on the contrary fields are always accompanied bypotentials

The above solution which stems from the mathematicalformalism of Quantum Field Theory (QFT) [5] opens thepossibility of tuning the fluctuations of a plurality of systemsproducing therefore their cooperative behavior Howeversome conditions must be met in order to implement such apossibility Let us first of all realize that in Quantum Physicsthe existence of gauge fields such as the em potentialdictated by the physical requirement that the quantumfluctuations of atoms should not be observable directlyprevents the possibility of having isolated bodies For thisreason the description of a physical system is given in termsof a matter field which is the space-time distribution ofatomsmolecules coupled to the gauge field with the possiblesupplement of other fields describing the nonelectromagneticinteractions such as the chemical forces


In Quantum Physics the space-time distribution ofmatter and energy has a coarse-grained structure whichallows its representation as an ensemble of quanta (parti-cle representation) However according to the principle ofcomplementarity there is also another representation wherethe phase assumes a precise value this representation whichfocuses on the wave-like features of the system cannot beassumed simultaneously with the particle representationTherelation between these two representations is expressed bythe uncertainty relation similar to the Heisenberg relationbetween position and momentum

120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)

connecting the uncertainty 120575119873 of the number of quanta(particle structure of the system) and the uncertainty 120575120593 ofthe phase (which describes the rhythm of fluctuation of thesystem)

Consequently the two representations we have intro-duced above correspond to the two extreme cases

(1) If 120575119873 = 0 the number of quanta is well defined sothat we obtain an atomistic description of the systembut lose the information on its capability to fluctuatesince 120575120593 becomes infinite This choice correspondsto the usual description of objects in terms of thecomponent atomsmolecules

(2) If 120575120593 = 0 the phase is well defined so that weobtain a description of the movement of the systembut lose the information on its particle-like featureswhich become undefined since 120575119873 becomes infiniteSuch a system having a well-defined phase is termedcoherent in the physical jargon

In the phase representation the deepest quantum featuresappear since the system becomes able to oscillate with awell-defined phase only when the number of its componentsbecomes undefined so that it is an open system and ableto couple its own fluctuations to the fluctuations of thesurroundings in a sense such a coherent system like abiological one is able to ldquofeelrdquo the environment through theem potential created by its phase dynamics

In conclusion a coherent system involves two kinds ofinteraction

(1) an interaction similar to that considered by ClassicalPhysics where objects interact by exchanging energyThese exchanges are connected with the appearanceof forces Since energy cannot travel faster than lightthis interaction obeys the principle of causality

(2) an interaction where a common phase arises amongdifferent objects because of their coupling to thequantum fluctuations and hence to an em potentialIn this case there is no propagation of matter andorenergy taking place and the components of thesystem ldquotalkrdquo to each other through the modulationsof the phase field travelling at the phase velocitywhich has no upper limit and can be larger than 119888

41 Emergence of Coherencewithin anEnsemble ofMicroscopicComponents The process of the emergence of coherentstructures out of a crowd of independent component particleshas been investigated in the last decades and is presentlyquite well understood [3 11] Let us describe a simple casewhere a large number119873 of atoms of the same species whoseparticle density is119873119881 are present in the empty space in theabsence of any externally applied field However accordingto the principles of Quantum Physics one em field shouldalways be assumed to be present namely the field arising assaid above from the quantumfluctuations of the vacuumThepresence of this field has received experimental corroborationby the discovery of the so-called ldquoLamb shiftrdquo named after theNobel prize winner Lamb [77] He discovered as far back asin 1947 that the energy level of the electron orbiting aroundthe proton in the hydrogen atom is slightly shifted (about onepart per million) with respect to the value estimated whenassuming that no em field is present Further corroborationfor the existence of vacuum fluctuations is provided by theCasimir effect [78ndash80] Therefore a weak em field is alwayspresent just the one arising from the vacuum quantumfluctuations

We give now a qualitative argument for the emergence ofcoherence [81] Let us assume for the sake of simplicity thatthe atoms can exhibit just two configurations the minimumenergy state which is the vacuum of the atom and the excitedstate having an excitation energy119864 = ℎ] (the Einstein relationconnecting 119864 to the frequency ] of a photon having thesame energy where ℎ is the Planck constant) A quantumfluctuation having the same frequency ] and a correspondingwavelength 120582 = 119888] where 119888 is the speed of light istherefore able to excite an atom present in the volume 119881 =1205823 of the fluctuation that is to raise it from the ground

configuration to the excited configuration The excited atomreleases the excitation energy and comes back to the groundconfiguration after a typical time dictated by atomic physicsthat is the decay time of the excited state

We should now pay attention to an important mismatchof the scales present in the problem we are dealing with Anatom has a size of about 1 Angstrom (A) which amounts to10minus8 cm whereas a typical excitation energy is in the order of

some electron volts (eVrsquos) corresponding to a wavelength ofthe associated em fluctuation in the order of some thousandAngstroms This means that the tool (the em fluctuation)able to induce a change of configuration in the atom issome thousands of times wider than the atom itself Hencea single quantum fluctuation can simultaneously involvemany atoms in the case for instance of the water vapor atboiling temperature and normal pressure the exciting emmode (in this case 12 eV) would include in its volume 20000molecules Let us assume now that in the volume 119881 = 1205823 ofthe fluctuation there are 119873 atoms Let 119875 be the probability(calculated by using ldquoLamb shiftrdquomdashlike phenomena) that anisolated atom is excited by an em quantum fluctuationTherefore the probability 119875119873 that one out of the119873 atoms getsexcited by the fluctuation is

119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)


where 119889 is the density of atoms We can see that there isa critical density 119889crit such that 119875119873 = 1 which meansthat the fluctuation excites with certainty one atom In suchconditions the virtual photon coming out from the vacuumis ldquohanded overrdquo from one atom to another and gets perma-nently entrapped within the ensemble of atoms being busyin keeping always at least one atom excited according to thisdynamics atoms acquire an oscillatory movement betweentheir two configurations In a short time many quantumfluctuations pile up in the ensemble producing eventuallya large field which keeps all atoms oscillating between theirtwo configurations Moreover the field gets self-trapped inthe ensemble of atoms since its frequency becomes smalleractually the period of oscillation 119879 of the free field should beextended by adding the time spent within the excited atomsConsequently the frequency ] = 1119879 decreases As a furtherconsequence the mass 119898 of the photon which is zero in thecase of a free field becomes imaginary In fact by using theEinstein equation for the photon mass and energy we get

1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)

The fact that ] le ]free implies that the squared mass 1198982of the trapped photon becomes negative and the mass 119898imaginary which implies furthermore that the photon is nolonger a particle and cannot propagate The field generatedwithin the ensemble of atoms cannot be irradiated outwardsand keeps the atoms oscillating up and down between thetwo configurations Finally in this way the ensemble of atomsbecomes a self-produced cavity in which the em mode istrapped and like in the cavity of a laser the field becomescoherent that is acquires a well-defined phase in tunewith the oscillations of the atoms which therefore becomecoherent too The more realistic case of atoms having aplurality of excited states has been also successfully addressedand needs a more sophisticated mathematics [3] Amongall the excited levels the one selected for giving rise to thecoherent oscillation is the level requiring the smallest time toself-produce a cavity

The region becomes a coherence domain (CD)whose sizeis the wavelength of the em mode where all atoms havetuned their individual fluctuations to each other and to theoscillation of the trapped field The size of the coherencedomain cannot be arbitrary but is determined in a self-consistent way by the dynamics underlying the emergence ofcoherence via the wavelength of the involved em mode Acoherent system is therefore an ensemble of self-determinedem cavities The fact that a biological system appears to be anested ensemble of cavities within cavities of different sizes(organs tissues cells organelles etc) having well-definedsizes is a strong indication for its coherence In a CD thereis a common phase specific of the CD which is thereforean object governed by a dynamics which eliminates theindependence of the individual components and creates aunitarily correlated behavior of all of them governed by theem field It is interesting to note that the German botanistJulius Sachs as far back as in 1892 coined the term ldquoenergiderdquo

to denote the unity of matter and field constituting thenature of cells namely the unity of matter and the so-calledldquovital forcerdquo which gives to biological matter its special activeproperties discriminating it from inert nonliving matter [82]

Communication within the domain takes place at thephase velocity since the messenger is the em potentialand not the em field Therefore it is much faster thancommunication implying energy andor matter propagationMoreover the correlation can involve only atomsmoleculesable to oscillate at the same frequency or some harmonicsthereof (resonance) Finally the emergence of coherence isa spontaneous event once the critical density 119889crit = (119873119881) isexceeded

The above argument has not taken into account temper-ature and thermal effects which are limiting constraints forcoherence generation When we include the thermal motionof atoms and the related thermal collisions we realize thata fraction of the coherent atoms will be pushed out of tuneby the collisions so that above the critical temperature wherethis fraction becomes the unity the coherent state cannotexist anymore [3]

In conclusion an ensemble of microscopic units (atomsmolecules etc) provided that they are composite systemshaving a plurality of internal configurations becomes alwaysspontaneously coherent once a critical density is overcomeand temperature is lower than a critical threshold

The coherent dynamics outlined above produces stablecoherence domains since the coherent state is a minimumenergy state where the energy is lower than the energy ofthe original ensemble of noncoherent independent particlesbecause of the interaction between the atomsmolecules andthe self-trapped em fieldTherefore the coherent system can-not decay spontaneously into another state having a still lowerenergyThe coherent state can be dismantled only by a supplyof external energy large enough to overcome the ldquoenergy gaprdquothat is the difference of energy between the coherent stateand the noncoherent ensemble of its components before theonset of coherence [20] The energy gap therefore protectsboth the integrity and stability of the coherent system andthe individual integrity of the components against (small)external disturbances

However the examples of coherent systems that are morewidely known in common scientific culture for examplelasers occur in the presence of an external supply of energywhich in the physical jargon is termed a ldquopumprdquo Coherencein these cases appears only when the system is pumpedso that it cannot arise and survive spontaneously and thesystem is faced by the limiting element of the inverseprocess decoherence Consequently living systems cannot beproperly considered as lasers in the conventional sense Theanalogy of living organisms with lasers should therefore beconsidered as a metaphor [3]

42 The Special Case of Liquid Water In the present contexta decisive role is ascribed to water as this is the case inthe living organism Therefore let us now treat the specialcase of the formation of coherence domains in this life-sustaining substance which has been examined in depth and


which allows us also to come back to the coherent dynamicsenvisaged above [3 81 83ndash86] The emergence of coherenceas described above accounts successfully for the vapor-liquidphase transition and for the thermodynamics of water Aquantitative agreement with experimental evidence has beenfound [87 88]

Moreover a peculiar feature appears in the case ofwater The coherent oscillation of the water molecules whichinduces the formation of the coherence domains occursbetween the moleculersquos ground state and an excited state at1206 eV which is slightly below the ionization threshold at1260 eV The electron cloud of the water molecule oscillatesbetween a configuration where all electrons are tightly bound(in this configuration water is an insulator and a mildchemical oxidant since it is able to bind an extra electron)and a configuration where one electron is almost free (inthis configuration water becomes a semiconductor and achemical reducer since it is able to release electrons)We havetherefore the following consequences

(1) Within the CD a coherent plasma of quasifree elec-trons is present the coherence of the plasma is theconsequence of the coherence of molecules Thisplasma is able to give rise to coherent ldquocoldrdquo vorticessince coherence prevents collisions among electronswhich would occur should electrons be independentwhen external energy is supplied In this way thewater CD acquires a spectrum of coherent excitedstates [89] Forwater CDrsquos we can iterate the argumentgiven above for atomsmolecules and show that waterCDrsquos can become coherent among them giving rise toa ldquosupercoherencerdquo [84] We get in the case of watera hierarchy of levels of coherence which starts fromthe elementary domains whose size is 01 microns(which is the wavelength corresponding to an emmode of 1206 eV) and reaches much higher scalescorresponding to ldquosuperdomainsrdquo as wide as microns(cells) centimeters (organs) and meters (organisms)parallel to the corresponding hierarchy found inbiology This hierarchy underlies the fractal natureof living organisms it has been recently proven thatfractals are just the consequence of the sequence ofnested coherent dynamics [90]

(2) Water CDrsquos are able to release electrons either byquantum tunneling or by mild external excitationsThe pair coherent water-noncoherent water (as it ispresent at the boundary of a domain) is thereforea redox pile able to supply the electrons needed inthe redox chemical processes which produce the bulkof the biological energy Szent-Gyorgyi has long agoshown that electrons should be available on biologicalsurfaces [22 31 91] A difference of electric potentialin the order of several tens of millivolts (the sameorder as the membrane potential) has been estimatedto be present across the interface at the boundary ofwater CDrsquos [85]

In conclusion liquid water (which contributes about 70of the total mass and 99 of the total number of componentmolecules of a living organism) exhibits a twofold innerdynamics(1) Through the hierarchical scale of nested coherence

domains just described water is able to store energy in thecoherent electron vortices in the CDrsquos whose lifetime can bevery long because of coherence [89] the long lifetime of thesingle excitations enables a pile-up of excitations which areunified by coherence into single excitations of higher energy[7] producing a sharp decrease of entropy This featureconfirms the proposal of Schrodinger [92] about the need ofnegative entropy (negentropy) for the appearance of orderin living systems The water CD appears as a device ableto collect energy from the environment as an ensemble ofmany independent low-energy excitations (high entropy) andto transform them into a single excitation of high energy(low entropy) [8] This property makes water CDrsquos likelycandidates to be dissipative structures a la Prigogine [10] Letus elucidate better this last point Appearance of coherencein a physical system implies a spontaneous decrease of itsentropy since energy gets concentrated to a smaller setof degrees of freedom than before the onset of coherenceThis phenomenon is possible without violating the secondlaw of thermodynamics only if the system is open therelease of energy outwards with the connected increase ofentropy of the environment is just the condition for thedecrease of the internal entropy of the system Consequentlya coherent system is necessarily an open system Moreoverthe spontaneous decrease of its internal entropy transformsits total energy into free energy able to perform externalwork This is just the definition of a dissipative structure[7 8]When the energy stored in a CD changes the frequencyof the CD so that it becomes equal to the frequency ofone nonaqueous molecule present in the surroundings thismolecule can be accepted as a further partner of the CD andreceives by resonance the stored energy getting chemicallyactivated and able to react chemically The energy released inthe chemical reaction is in turn taken over by the water CDwhich correspondingly changes again its own frequency andbecomes able to attract different molecular speciesThe rangeof attraction between CDrsquos and coresonating molecules hasthe size of the CD and then provides the long-range selectiveattraction among molecules that is sorely missing in modernbiochemistry [8 81]

The above consideration allows us to sketch a first roughschemeof a picture of biochemical processes not based ondif-fusion and random molecular movements where molecularencounters are not random but obey specific ldquoorganic codesrdquoevolving in time and where each step of the biochemicalsequence is determined by the previous one In the dynamicsoutlined here energy plays the major role(2)There is however a second dynamics always coupled

with the first one which plays a major role in the com-munication at a long distance A system is coherent sinceits phase has a well-defined value An ensemble of nestedtime-dependent coherence domains such as those possiblein aqueous systems (living organisms are of course aqueoussystems) exhibits therefore an extended phase field evolving


in time Within this field communication travels faster thanlight providing a connection at a large distance among theparts According to the concepts described in the first partof this section the variations of the phase produced by thedynamics of the biochemical scheme discussed above arecarried within the larger coherent region by the em poten-tial which at each point triggers changes in the moleculardynamics (recall that the potential appears in the Schrodingerequation of the molecule) In this scheme the informationgets spread around by an agent the phase able to travel fasterthan light provided that the journey takes place within thecoherent region but no actual propagation of energy occursThe energetic requirements of the flow of information aremet solely by the energy present locally In other words thesequence of events is as follows an energetic event (ega chemical reaction) occurs at some place of the coherentregion its output energy induces a change of the phase ofthe host CD and an em potential then arises which reacheswith a speed faster than light far away regions whose phaseis correspondingly changed implying a change of the localmolecular dynamics An actual transfer of energy andormatter does not take place at any point in this sequence ofevents removing therefore the usual objection raised againstthe real existence of phenomena which seem to imply theexistence of an instantaneous action at a distance by livingorganisms [93]

The existence of a coupling among components of a livingorganism mediated by the em potential could also providea surprising unexpected rationale for the seeming paradoxof large biological effects induced by the application of veryweak electromagnetic fields This occurs for instance whencell cultures are irradiated by low-intensity microwaves [94]Cells exhibit large biological effects when the microwaveirradiation occurs at selected values of the microwave fre-quency according to a spectrum specific of the cell speciesAbove a very tiny threshold the effect does not dependon intensity provided that the intensity is below the valuewhere thermal effects begin to be significantThis nonthermaleffect of radiation coupled to the seeming paradox of effectsdisproportional to the amount of supplied energy could beunderstood by assuming that the effective agent is not thefield but the potential Further information on the effect ofpotentials on biological targets will be provided in Section 5when we will discuss the experimental corroboration for thepresent theoretical scheme

43 Normal Water and Biological Water We should nowcome back to the properties of the usual normal water byrealizing that the above complex dynamics with the interplaybetween chemistry and coherent quantum electrodynam-ics cannot occur in normal bulk water that is water farfrom surfaces The reason is that in normal bulk waterthe interplay between electrodynamic processes inducingcoherence and thermal processes hampering coherence givesrise to a continuously changing dynamic equilibrium whereeach molecule crosses very swiftly from a coherent to anoncoherent state and vice versa In such a situation the totalnumber ofmolecules belonging to the two fractions coherent

and non-coherent is constant at each temperature as itoccurs in the well-known case of superfluid liquid Helium[95] However the molecules actually belonging to the twofractions are continuously crossing over between the twofractions producing a flickering landscape at a microscopiclevel Since every observation implies a time average of theobserved features on the time necessary for the observationthis explains why liquid water (and the other liquids too)looks homogenous and not like the two-phase liquid it reallyis Consequently a water CD does not live long enoughto exhibit its long-time features and to produce a historyHowever close to a surface a wall or a molecular backboneable to attract water the attraction energy adds up to theldquoenergy gaprdquo produced by the coherent dynamics and givesrise to a better shielding against thermal disruption As aconsequence interfacial water is almost all coherent Withina living organism there is no point of the aqueous mediumfurther removed from some surface ormacromolecular chainthan a fraction of a micron so that we can infer thatalmost the whole biological water is interfacial and thereforecoherent

The above property accounts for the observation thatwater in the hydration shells of biomolecules exhibits quitedifferent properties than usual bulk water In particular ithas been observed that this water looks like water at subzerotemperatures (overcooled water) which resembles more andmore to a glass when lowering temperature This propertyhas been investigated in the QED framework by Buzzacchiet al [87] who have shown that the coherent fraction of waterincreases at decreasing temperature and coincides with thewhole mass of the liquid at temperature around 200K Ata temperature of 250K coherent fraction has already a veryhigh value about 07 It is not strange that when coherentfraction gets increased by the interaction with a surface waterlooks like overcooled water This property has been observedby many authors as for instance Levstik et al [96] Let usquote verbatim the statement of Pagnotta and Bruni [97]

interfacial and intracellular water is directly involvedin the formation of amorphous matrices with glass-like structural and dynamical properties We proposethat this glassiness of water geometrically confinedby the presence of solid intracellular surfaces is akey characteristic that has been exploited by Naturein setting up a mechanism able to match the quitedifferent time scales of protein and solvent dynamicsnamely to slow down fast solvent dynamics to make itoverlap with the much slower protein turnover timesin order to sustain biological functions Additionallyand equally important the same mechanism can beused to completely stop or slow down biologicalprocesses as a protection against extreme conditionssuch as low temperature or dehydration

A more impressive consequence of the interactionbetween liquid water and solid surfaces has been provided bythe group led by Pollack [98ndash101] They have found that thewater layer close to a hydrophilic surface assumes peculiar


properties This layer may be as thick as some hundreds ofmicrons and

(a) excludes all solutes hence the name exclusion zone(EZ) is given to such layer

(b) is about tenfold more viscous than normal waterlooking like a glass

(c) becomes fluorescent for wavelengths of 270 nm(d) assumes a surface charge of the same sign of the solid

surface(e) exhibits a difference of electric potential with respect

to the neighbouring bulk water of about 100mVAll these properties have been accounted for in the QED

framework in a recent paper [102]The presence of electromagnetic fields in the water layers

close to the surface produces the appearance of a nondiffusiveregime for particles present in these layers or on theirssurfaces As a matter of fact the presence of superdiffusivechemical signalling has been revealed on microfluidic chips[103] Moreover the role of this nondiffusive regime nearsurfaces has been detected in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ)systems where the self-ordering disappears when the amountof water decreases below a threshold [85]

The large size of the layers of EZ water (up to 500120583m)is much larger than the size of CDs of water molecules(01 120583m) calculated in [3 86] showing that the phenomenonof coherence among coherence domains as suggested by[84] is at work The complex dynamics arising from theinterplay of many scales of coherence which cannot occurin normal water therefore can arise near surfaces (recall thepossible role of lagoons and clay surfaces in the origin oflife see [104 105]) and can be safely at work within livingorganisms suggesting the possibility of understanding at lasttheir deepest dynamics

5 Experimental Probes of the CoherentPicture of Living Matter

The theoretical framework outlined above has increasinglyreceived support by a growing body of evidence First ofall one should realize that the QFT picture satisfies thetwo main requirements demanded by biological evidence wehave discussed in the introduction the existence of selectiverecognition and attraction among biomolecules (organiccodes) and long-range connections among biocomponentswhich cannot be accounted for by the very short-rangeinteractions implied by a purely chemical dynamics

However we are now confronted bymore direct evidenceIn the last decade the investigation of photosynthetic systemshas produced evidence for the existence of coherent long-range connections between biomolecules Let us quote ver-batim from the abstract of a recent paper published inNature[19]

Intriguingly recent work has documented that light-absorbingmolecules in some photosynthetic proteinscapture and transfer energy according to quantum-mechanical probability laws instead of classical laws

at temperatures up to 180K This contrasts with thelong-held view that long-range quantum coherencebetween molecules cannot be sustained in complexbiological systems even at low temperatures Here wepresent two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopymeasurements on two evolutionarily related light-harvesting proteins isolated from marine crypto-phyte algae which reveal exceptionally long-lastingexcitation oscillations with distinct correlations andanti-correlations even at ambient temperature Theseobservations provide compelling evidence for quan-tum coherent sharing of electronic excitation acrossthe 5 nm wide proteins under biologically relevantconditions suggesting that distant molecules withinthe photosynthetic proteins are ldquowiredrdquo togetherby quantum coherence for more efficient light-harvesting in cryptophyte marine algae

The amount of pioneering research done on photosyn-thetic systems (see also the references of the quoted paper)opens the way to extended research on other biologicalsystems in order to test the assumption that a coherentconnection among biomolecules could be the general rule inbiology

A direct corroboration of the electromagnetic nature ofthe biological dynamics and of the central role played bywater in it has been provided by some recent work performedby a group led by the Nobel prize winner Montagnier et al[18] which has been interpreted in the theoretical frameworkillustrated by the present paper [106] Let us give a shortsummary of Montagnierrsquos experiment

Bacterial DNA sequences are suspended in pure bidis-tilled deionized water and subsequently water is addedincreasing the dilution of the DNA sequences The cuvettecontaining the suspension is put within a coil connectedwith a signal amplifier Above a threshold of dilution low-frequency em fields (500ndash3000Hz) are found at the con-dition that a very low-frequency (a few Hz) em noise ispresent in the ambient When the noise is absent no signalsare detected The same occurs when the amount of wateris below the critical threshold The ensemble of these twocircumstances suggests that water interacting with the DNAis responsible for the emission of fields and that as illustratedin the last section the energy of the signals is provided bythe ambient noise being stored in water Additional evidenceis given by the circumstance that by further diluting thesolution the intensity of the signals gets enhanced A furtherfundamental feature appearing in the experiment is obtainedby supplying the emitted signals to pure water contained inanother vessel for a suitable timeThis second vessel can evenbe located very far away and receive the signal coded in thefirst vessel at a distance removing therefore the possibilityof molecular contamination between the two vessels Afteradding PCR molecules (the basic chemical components ofDNA) to the irradiated water the original DNA sequencesappear in the irradiated liquid The experimental evidenceis consistent with the outcome of our theoretical frameworkthat the supplied field induces a space-time distributionof the phase (which induces in turn an em potential) in


the irradiated pure water This in turn drives the forma-tion of a coherent biological aggregate once the necessarybiomolecules are supplied

Montagnier experiment suggests that ambient em sig-nals (as a matter of fact the em potential) emitted fromliving organisms or from cosmic sources could affect thegenic structure of organisms and have therefore possibly animpact on the species evolution The investigation of thispossibility could contribute significantly to the theory ofevolution However we do not have yet data on this topic

The Montagnier experiments suggest a key role for theem potential Direct evidence for this is obtained by anumber of experiments performed in the last years (seeeg [13 17]) Smith observed significant clinical effects onpatients after their exposition to the action of fields producedby coils wound around ferromagnetic toroids in this casethe magnetic field is tightly trapped within the toroid andcannot leak out so that the only field which can be presentoutside the toroid is the magnetic vector potential Hencethe appearance of clinical effects on the exposed patients canbe produced solely by the magnetic vector potential SinceQuantum Physics prescribes that a pure potential can affectcoherent systems only the Smith results provide evidencesuggesting that the living organism is a coherent systemMore compelling evidence is provided by the Trukhan andAnosov experiment which does not involve human subjectsIn their experiment the probed system is an ensemble of redblood cells suspended in water and the measured variable isthe velocity of sedimentation The magnetic vector potentialis switched on and off by switching on and off the electriccurrent in the coil wound around the toroid A significantchange of the velocity of sedimentation of the erythrocytesis observed when the potential is present Again we obtainevidence that the affected biological targets are coherentsystems and that a physical variable as the em potential canbecome a biological agent

A last body of evidence comes from the appearance ofnew properties of liquid water when undergoing a specialphysical treatment An Israeli group [107] has been able toobserve a significant change of the physical properties of anaqueous system after irradiation by microwaves they termedthis specially treated water ldquoneowaterrdquo They observed thatthe space structure of the electrochemical deposits left onthe electrodes when using the neowater as a solvent wasmuch different from that left in the case of normal watersuggesting a different space distribution of the fields presentin the solvent Moreover neowater gave different responsesto physical probes such as NMR The same properties wereinduced in water by using the suspension of microspheres ofbarium titanate or by the addition of fullerene molecules asa treating agent instead of microwaves This is a surprisingresult since the same outcome has been produced by threecompletely different physical treatments In our picture thiswould correspond to three different ways of enhancing thesame feature that is the coherence of water An intriguingfeature appearing in neowater is the presence of a spatiallyordered crystal-like stable array of gas micro-bubbles Innormal water microbubbles are flickering in a random wayIn our theoretical scheme since nonaqueous molecules are

expelled from within the coherence domains (because theyare unable to resonate with water CDrsquos) a bubble is going toappear in the interstice between a CD and its next neighbour-ing domain The ordered array of microbubbles is thereforethe consequence of the existence of an ordered array of waterCDrsquos as it occurs when CDrsquos become coherent among them(supercoherence) Since supercoherence can occur in a per-manent way as pointed out in Section 3 in interfacial waterand biological fluids neowater is a liquidwhere the possibilityof supercoherence is extended to the bulk of the water by thephysical treatment Neowater should therefore be assumedto be intermediate between normal water and biologicalwater Further understanding of this property is provided byGiudice and Tedeschi [84] They show that by suspendingtriturated vegetal leaves and algae in water after a suitablephysical treatment properties similar to those exhibited byneowater appear The trituration of the suspended vegetals ismeant to induce a highly enhanced coherent activity by thembecause their ldquoinstinct of survivalrdquo induced by the ldquoirritationrdquois assumed to increase their coherent activity in a strong wayThe em fields connected with this activity would then as inthe Montagnier experiment imprint the surrounding waterand produce coherence among coherence domains namelysupercoherence

6 Outlook Toward an Interplay betweenPhysics and Biology

The quantum field theoretical picture outlined in the presentpaper which has already got some experimental corrob-oration opens new perspectives for future research Thefeasibility of such a point of view has been already anticipatedin some discussion on the origin of interconnectednessin biology [20] A holistic picture of the living organismemerges which combines all the achievements reached bymodern molecular biology with the collective dynamicsmade possible by the achievements of modern QuantumPhysics In each biological cycle biomolecules encountereach other and behave exactly as in the ways discovered bymolecular biology However molecular encounters do notoccur through random diffusion movements but are drivenby extended em fields arising from the collective dynamics ofwater whose decisive role in the biological dynamics has beenat last recognized Consequently a living organism cannotbe conceived any longer as a mere collection of independentmolecules mutually coupled by chemical interactions onlybut must be seen as a coherent ensemble a matter fieldwhose evolution is driven by long-range em fields whosefeatures are in turn determined by the output of the chemicalreactions Biological dynamics is thus emerging from a closeinterplay of electrodynamics and chemistry The ensuingpicture of a living organism becomes that of a hologram assuggested by Pribram for the brain [108]

The corresponding complex dynamics could be summa-rized as follows water molecules which account for the vastmajority of molecular components of the organism organizethemselves into extended coherence domains where emfields having a well-defined frequency are trapped inside


These coherence domains are able to collect chaotic energy(high entropy) from the environment and store it in theform of coherent excitations (low entropy) which change thefrequency of the trapped em fields When this frequencymatches the frequency of some nonaqueous moleculespresent in the surroundings those molecules are attracted tothe boundaries of the water CDrsquos coating them and possiblyproducing membranes [109] The attracting forces are of thesame type as the forces arising on the boundaries of laserbeams and are the consequence of the following theoremtwo particles able to oscillate at the respective frequencies ]1and ]2 when immersed in an extended em field oscillatingat a frequency ]0 develop an attracting force (dispersiveforce) whose range coincides with the size of the backgroundfield The attractive force becomes very large when the threefrequencies ]0 ]1 and ]2 do not differ more than the thermalnoise 119896119879 The above theorem puts a constraint on whichmolecular species can be involved in the above dynamicsA molecule is able to participate in the coherent dynamicsdriven by water if and only if a frequency ]119894 is present in itsspectrum such that

ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)

When molecules satisfy the constraint put by equation (4)they can steal energy from the thermal noise in order toresonate with the frequency of the CD and thus be involvedin the coherent dynamics Notice that the frequencies ofoscillation of water CDrsquos have been estimated [88] to be inthe infrared range (02 divide 03 eV) so that the relevant part ofthe spectra of biomolecules is just the infrared one

In conclusion in order to become a biomolecule a givenmolecule is required to have in its spectrum a frequencycontained in the range of the values of frequencies the waterCD can assume On this base the validity of the presentscheme could be subjected to a test Notice that out of theabout 100 amino acids known to chemists only 20 are presentin the biochemistry of living organisms Here the questionmust be asked why the other 80 amino acids are neglected bythe organism

The occurrence of chemical reactions and the corre-sponding release of energy as we have seen in Section 4changes the frequency of the water CD and consequently alsochanges the involved molecular species in such a way weget finally a time-dependent scheme ofmolecular recognitionand recall Future research will have to work out testableschemes of biochemical reaction sequences based on adetailed knowledge of infrared molecular spectra

All the events occurring within the coherent region aremutually coupled by the em potential so that they affect eachother in such a way that we do not have linear sequences oflocal events but sequences where each step is a synchronousensemble of coordinated events spanning the whole regionThis feature is the basis of the holistic character of the livingorganism

The above concept applies in particular to the growth ofthe organism The growing organism attracts new moleculesthrough the field already formed within itself so that theattraction does not occur at random but according to a

code provided by the ensemble of frequencies present inthe field This attraction is a long-range attraction sincethe field is falling off at the CD interface as it occursin all self-trapping cavities and produces an exponentiallydecreasing evanescent tail It is just this tail that allows thecoherent system to explore its surroundings In this waythe evanescent tail could give rise to a morphogenetic fieldThese features of the evanescent field as responsible for theattraction of molecules on the CD surface account for theastonishing lack of biochemical mistakes unavoidable withina random dynamics and for the rapidity of the growthprocess which is well known to occur in a highly coordinatedfashion Ho and her colleagues have already proposed in1994 that themorphogenetic field governing the growth of anembryo coincides with an em potential [14] A fascinatingsurvey of morphogenesis has been given by [110] A highlyinteresting contribution to this line of thinking has beengiven recently by Pietak [111] However a detailed study ofmorphogenesis has not yet been performed and is a topic forfuture investigations

The necessity of a resonance between biomolecules andwater is at the origin of the appearance of geometricalshapes in living organisms The frequency of oscillation ofbiomolecules should coincide with the frequency of oscilla-tion of water CDrsquos however the frequency of biomoleculesdepends on their chemical or other short-range bindingswith neighbouringmoleculesThese bindings depend in turnon the mutual position of the interacting partners On thecontrary the frequency of oscillation of CDrsquos is not dependenton these local features As a consequence in order to matchthe frequency of the CD biomolecules are compelled toassume those well-defined positions in space which allowthem to oscillate at the same frequency as the CDrsquos hencethe appearance of specific geometrical shapes in the structureof living organisms The time dependence of the coherentdynamics implies a time dependence of the geometricalshapes and this property could account for the interestingfindings of Claverie and Jona Lasinio [112] about molecularstructures

The concept of coherence applied here to biology hasfound so far a large scale application in the studies on braindynamics [113ndash119] According to this body of investigationsthe activity of the brain is not the result of the activityof single neurons but emerges from the ldquomass actionrdquo (asFreeman has termed this collective activity) of macroscopicregions of the brain A further offspring of this study is anapproach to the problem of the emergence of consciousness[115 116] which arises just from the permanent interactionof the brain with some part of the environment that is theensemble of external oscillators resonating with the brainoscillators Vitiello terms the external ensemble of oscillatorsldquothe Doublerdquo of the brain [116]

A final topic we address in this concise outlook concernsthe concept of health A healthy organism according to thepresent scheme should be a system where all the physiologi-cal and psychological subsystems are optimally synchronizedand coherent with each other in a highly coordinated way[120] Within this systemic state of coherence which is main-tained by the communication through the em potentials


described above the coherent interplay between fields andmatter plays a decisive role Each em frequency must finda molecule able to respond to it and each molecule presentin the coherent region is governed by a corresponding fieldresonating with the respective molecular frequency Thiscould be a possible root of the well-known principle ofbiological homeostasis

It is entirely possible that thewell-studied chemical effectsof drugs could in actual practice be supplemented by electro-magnetic effects induced by their presence For instance oli-goelements are known to be essential for the health of humanorganisms However their actual concentration in the body isso low (10minus5moL) to make the assumption unlikely that theireffect is the consequence of their presence on specific sitesA likely explanation which of course demands experimentaltesting could be that the atoms of an oligoelement do not actas chemical subjects but as em antennae these atoms couldbe conceived as the elements of a chain of em stations whichrepeat and possibly amplify the em signal ensuring its long-range transmissionThe above speculation would suggest theexistence besides the local chemical effect of an action at adistance of selected molecular species of drugs

The identity and stability of the coherent system areprotected by the energy gap which is the amount of energynecessary to destroy coherence Actually a change of thestructure of some components of a coherent ensemble byvarying their oscillation frequency would put them out oftune with the general oscillation and hamper coherenceHowever these local changes of the structure of the com-ponents would demand a supply of energy larger than theenergy gap Actually local chemical reactions or other kindsof local processes could possibly release amounts of energylarger than the energy gap for example this release of energycould come from the local interaction of a microorganismhosted in the organism and some microscopic componentsof a larger coherent unit of the organism In the case ofan energy output of an interaction larger than the energygap of the components these last ones would be pulled outof coherence damaging the wholeness of the organism Inthis case the microorganism would turn into a pathogenand illness would set in In the conventional perspective thetherapy demands the killing of the pathogen that is a specificlocal therapy However the scheme presented here wouldsuggest the alternative strategy of increasing the height of theenergy gap through the enhancement of coherence makingit unchallengeable by the local productions of energy (ieimproving the ldquoterrainrdquo as old medical doctors used to say)

In summary we think that a new perspective opens tobiological research It accepts all the achievements of modernmolecular biology but embeds them within a collectivedynamics originating from the basic quantum features ofnature and is able to create an overall dynamic order in theorganism

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to their friends (in alphabeticalorder) Antonella DeNinno Beverly Rubik Patrizia Stefanini

Alberto Tedeschi Giuseppe Vitiello Vladimir Voeikov andBernd Zeiger for encouragement and useful discussions

References

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[2] J M Bockris and S U M Khan Bioelectrochemistry PlenumPress New York NY USA 1993

[3] G Preparata QED Coherence in Matter World ScientificSingapore 1995

[4] HUmezawaAdvanced FieldTheoryMicroMacro andThermalConcepts American Institute of Physics New York NY USA1993

[5] M BlasoneM Jizba andG VitielloQuantumFieldTheory andIts Macroscopic Manifestations Imperial College Press LondonUK 2011

[6] H Frohlich ldquoLong range coherence and energy storage in bio-logical systemsrdquo International Journal of Quantum Chemistryvol 2 pp 641ndash649 1968

[7] E Del Giudice R M Pulselli and E Tiezzi ldquoThermodynamicsof irreversible processes and quantum field theory an interplayfor the understanding of ecosystem dynamicsrdquo Ecological Mod-elling vol 220 no 16 pp 1874ndash1879 2009

[8] V Voeikov and E Del Giudice ldquoWater respiration the base ofthe living staterdquoWater Journal vol 1 pp 52ndash75 2009

[9] A Kurcz A Capolupo A Beige E Del Giudice and GVitiello ldquoEnergy concentration in composite quantum systemsrdquoPhysical Review A vol 81 no 6 Article ID 063821 2010

[10] I Prigogine and G Nicolis Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems John Wiley amp Sons New York NY USA1997

[11] E Del Giudice and G Vitiello ldquoRole of the electromagneticfield in the formation of domains in the process of symmetry-breaking phase transitionsrdquo Physical Review A vol 74 no 2Article ID 022105 2006

[12] L Brizhik E Del Giudice S E Joslashrgensen N Marchettiniand E Tiezzi ldquoThe role of electromagnetic potentials in theevolutionary dynamics of ecosystemsrdquoEcologicalModelling vol220 no 16 pp 1865ndash1869 2009

[13] C W Smith ldquoElectromagnetic and magnetic vector potentialbio-information and waterrdquo inUltra High Dilution P C Endlerand J Schulte Eds pp 187ndash201 Kluwer Academic DordrechtThe Netherlands 1994

[14] M W Ho A French J Haffegee and P T Saunders ldquoCanweak magnetic fields (or potentials) affect pattern formationrdquoin Bioelectrodynamics and Biocommunication M W Ho FA Popp and U Warnke Eds pp 195ndash212 World ScientificSingapore 1994

[15] M Bischof ldquoSkalarwellen und Quantenfelder als moglicheGrundlage biologischer Informationrdquo Erfahrungsheilkunde vol47 no 5 pp 295ndash300 1998

[16] M Bischof ldquoHolism and field theories in biologymdashnon-molecular approaches and their relevance to biophysicsrdquo inBiophotons J J Chang J Fisch and F A Popp Eds pp 375ndash394 Kluwer Academic Dordrecht The Netherlands 1998

[17] E M Trukhan and V N Anosov ldquoVector potential as a channelof informational effect on living objectsrdquo Biofizika vol 52 no2 pp 376ndash381 2007

[18] L Montagnier J Aıssa S Ferris J-L Montagnier and CLavallee ldquoElectromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous


nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequencesrdquo Inter-disciplinary Sciences Computational Life Sciences vol 1 no 2pp 81ndash90 2009

[19] E Collini C Y Wong K E Wilk P M G Curmi P Brumerand G D Scholes ldquoCoherently wired light-harvesting in pho-tosynthetic marine algae at ambient temperaturerdquo Nature vol463 no 7281 pp 644ndash647 2010

[20] B Zeiger and M Bischof ldquoThe quantum vacuum and itssignificance in biologyrdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd InternationalHombroich Symposium on Biophysics Neuss Germany August1998

[21] A J Clark The Mode of Action of Drugs on Cells EdwardArnold London UK 1933

[22] A Szent-Gyorgyi Introduction to A Supramolecular BiologyAcademic Press New York NY USA 1960

[23] M Zuidgeest ldquoThe concept ofmatter inmodern atomic theoryrdquoActa Biotheoretica vol 26 no 1 pp 30ndash38 1977

[24] G R Welch and M N Berry ldquoLong-range energy continuain the living cell protochemical considerationsrdquo in CoherentExcitations in Biological Systems H Froehlich and F KremerEds pp 95ndash116 Springer Berlin Germany 1983

[25] F BistolfiBiostructures andRadiationOrderDisorderMinervaMedica Torino Italy 1991

[26] W D M Paton ldquoA theory of drug action based on the rate ofdrug-receptor combinationrdquo Proceedings of the Royal Society Bvol 154 pp 21ndash29 1961

[27] WRAdey ldquoPhysiological signalling across cellmembranes andcooperative influence of extremely-low frequency electromag-netic fieldsrdquo in Biological Coherence and Response to ExternalStimuli H Frohlich Ed pp 148ndash170 Springer New York NYUSA 1988

[28] J S Clegg ldquoIntercellular water metabolism and cell architec-turerdquo in Coherent Excitations in Biological Systems H Frohlichand F Kremer Eds pp 162ndash177 Springer New York NY USA1983

[29] E Del Giudice S Doglia andMMilani ldquoRouleau formation oferythrocytes a dynamical modelrdquo Journal of Biological Physicsvol 13 no 3 pp 57ndash68 1985

[30] S Rowlands ldquoCondensed matter physics and the biology of thefuturerdquo Journal of Biological Physics vol 13 no 4 pp 103ndash1051985

[31] A Szent-GyorgyiBioenergetics Academic PressNewYorkNYUSA 1957

[32] P Weiss ldquoCellular dynamicsrdquo Reviews of Modern Physics vol31 pp 11ndash20 1959

[33] P Weiss ldquoInteractions between cellsrdquo Reviews of ModernPhysics vol 31 pp 449ndash454 1959

[34] B Alberts D Bray J Lewis M Raff K Roberts and J DWatson Molecular Biology of the Cell Garland New York NYUSA 1983

[35] S Rowlands ldquoCoherent excitations in bloodrdquo in CoherentExcitations in Biological Systems H Frohlich and F CremerEds pp 145ndash161 Springer Berlin Germany 1983

[36] S Rowlands ldquoThe interaction of living red blood cellsrdquo inBiological Coherence and Response to External Stimuli HFrohlich Ed pp 171ndash191 Springer Berlin Germany 1988

[37] A S Presman Electromagnetic Fields and Life Plenum NewYork NY USA 1970

[38] R Paul ldquoProduction of coherent states in biological systemsrdquoPhysics Letters A vol 96 no 5 pp 263ndash268 1983

[39] W Nagl and F A Popp ldquoA physical (electromagnetic) model ofdifferentiation I Basic considerationsrdquoCytobios vol 37 no 145pp 45ndash62 1983

[40] JW Frazer and J E Frazer ldquoThe communication ofmoleculesrdquoin Festschrift Celebrating the 65th Birthday of Lyndon LaRouchepp 45ndash52 Executive Intelligence ReviewWiesbaden Germany1987

[41] I Cosic ldquoMacromolecular bioactivity is it resonant interactionbetween macromoleculesmdashTheory and applicationsrdquo IEEETransactions on Biomedical Engineering vol 41 no 12 pp 1101ndash1114 1994

[42] I Cosic The Resonant Recognition Model of MacromolecularBioactivityTheory and Applications Birkhauser Basel Switzer-land 1997

[43] KH Li ldquoCoherence in physics and biologyrdquo inRecent Advancesin Biophoton Research and Its Applications F A Popp K H Liand Q Gu Eds pp 113ndash155 World Scientific Singapore 1992

[44] K H Li ldquoUncertainty principle coherence and structuresrdquo inOn Self-Organization R K Mishra D Maass and E ZwierleinEds pp 245ndash255 Springer Berlin Germany 1994

[45] K H Li ldquoCoherencemdasha bridge between micro- and macro-systemsrdquo in BiophotonicsmdashNon-Equilibrium and Coherent Sys-tems in Biology Biophysics and Biotechnology L V Belousovand F A Popp Eds pp 99ndash114 Bioinform Services MoscowRussia 1995

[46] M Galle R Neurohr G Altmann F A Popp and W NaglldquoBiophoton emission fromDaphnia magna a possible factor inthe self-regulation of swarmingrdquo Experientia vol 47 no 5 pp457ndash460 1991

[47] I Cosic E Pirogova VVojisavljevic andQ Fang ldquoElectromag-netic properties of biomoleculesrdquo FMETransactions vol 34 pp71ndash80 2006

[48] V Vojisavljevic E Pirogova and I Cosic ldquoInvestigation of themechanisms of electromagnetic field interaction with proteinsrdquoin Proceedings of the 27th Annual International Conference of theEngineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS rsquo05)pp 7541ndash7544 September 2005

[49] R H Dicke ldquoCoherence in spontaneous radiation processesrdquoPhysical Review vol 93 no 1 pp 99ndash110 1954

[50] RHDicke ldquoThe coherence brightened laserrdquo inQuantumElec-tronics Vol 1 Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference onQuantum Electronics Paris 1963 Dunod amp Cie P Grivet and NBloembergen Eds pp 35ndash54 Columbia University Press NewYork NY USA 1964

[51] F A Popp ldquoSome essential questions of biophoton research andprobable answersrdquo in Recent Advances in Biophoton Researchand Its Applications F A Popp K H Li and Q Gu Eds pp1ndash46 World Scientific Singapore 1992

[52] A Crubellier S LibermanD Pavolini and P Pillet ldquoSuperradi-ance and subradiance I Interatomic interference and symme-try properties in three-level systemsrdquo Journal of Physics B vol18 no 18 article 022 pp 3811ndash3833 1985

[53] H C Spemann Embryonic Development and Induction YaleUniversity Press New Haven Conn USA 1938

[54] D J Haraway Crystals Fabrics and Fields Metaphors ofOrganicism in Twentieth-Century Developmental Biology YaleUniversity Press New Haven Conn USA 1976

[55] A Harrington Reenchanted Science Holism in German CultureFrom Wilhelm II To Hitler Princeton University Press Prince-ton NJ USA 1996


[56] A Gurwitsch ldquoUber den Begriff des Embryonalen feldesrdquoArchiv fur Entwicklungsmechanik der Organismen vol 51 no1 pp 383ndash415 1922

[57] P WeissMorphodynamik Borntraeger Berlin Germany 1926[58] P Weiss and A Moscona ldquoType-specific morphogenesis of

cartilages developed from dissociated limb and scleral mes-enchyme in vitrordquo Journal of Embryology and ExperimentalMorphology vol 6 no 2 pp 238ndash246 1958

[59] P Weiss Principles of Development Holt New York NY USA1939

[60] L V Beloussov J M Opitz and S F Gilbert ldquoLife of AlexanderG Gurwitsch and his relevant contribution to the theory ofmorphogenetic fieldsrdquo International Journal of DevelopmentalBiology vol 41 no 6 pp 771ndash779 1997

[61] R Sheldrake The Presence of the Past Collins London UK1988

[62] F A Popp Q Gu and K H Li ldquoBiophoton emissionexperimental background and theoretical approachesrdquoModernPhysics Letters B vol 8 pp 1269ndash1296 1994

[63] M Bischof Biophotonen Zweitausendeins Frankfurt Ger-many 1995

[64] S F Gilbert J M Opitz and R A Raff ldquoResynthesizing evo-lutionary and developmental biologyrdquo Developmental Biologyvol 173 no 2 pp 357ndash372 1996

[65] G Mitman and A Fausto-Sterling ldquoWhatever happened toplanaria C M Child and the physiology of inheritancerdquo inThe Right Tool For the Right Job At Work in Twentieth-CenturyLife-Sciences A E Clarke and J H Fujimura Eds pp 172ndash197Princeton University Press Princeton NJ USA 1992

[66] J M Opitz and S F Gilbert ldquoCommentary to Beloussov LVLife of Alexander G Gurwitsch and his relevant contributionto the theory of morphogenetic fieldsrdquo International Journal ofDevelopmental Biology vol 41 p 778 1997

[67] B C Goodwin ldquoDeveloping organisms as self-organizingfieldsrdquo in Self-Organizing Systems F E Yates Ed pp 167ndash180Plenum Press New York NY USA 1987

[68] B C Goodwin How the Leopard Changed Its SpotsmdashtheEvolution of Complexity Charles Scribnerrsquos Sons NewYork NYUSA 1994

[69] B C Goodwin G Webster and J W Smith ldquoThe lsquoevolutionaryparadigmrsquoand lsquoconstructional biologyrsquordquo Explorations in Knowl-edge vol 4 no 1 pp 29ndash40 1987

[70] R Keller Die Elektrizitaet in der Zelle Braumueller WienAustria 1918

[71] G W Crile The Phenomena of Life A Radioelectric Interpreta-tion W W Norton New York NY USA 1936

[72] E J Lund Bioelectric Fields and Growth University of TexasPress Austin Tex USA 1936

[73] G Lakhowsky The Secret of Life Heinemann Medical BooksLondon UK 1939

[74] H S Burr and F S C Northrop ldquoThe electro-dynamic theoryof liferdquo Quarterly Review of Biology vol 10 pp 322ndash333 1935

[75] H S Burr The Fields of Life Ballantine Books New York NYUSA 1973

[76] M Bischof ldquoIntroduction to integrative biophysicsrdquo in Inte-grative Biophysics F A Popp and L V Beloussov Eds pp 1ndash115 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht The Netherlands2003

[77] W E Lamb and R C Retherford ldquoFine structure of thehydrogen atom by a microwave methodrdquo Physical Review vol72 no 3 pp 241ndash243 1947

[78] H B G Casimir ldquoOn the attraction between two perfectlyconducting platesrdquo Proceedings of the Koninklijke NederlandseAkademie Van Wetenschappen B vol 51 pp 793ndash796 1948

[79] S K Lamoreaux ldquoDemonstration of the Casimir force in the 0to 6 120583m rangerdquo Physical Review Letters vol 78 pp 5ndash8 1997

[80] U Mohideen and A Roy ldquoPrecision measurement of theCasimir force from 01 to 09 120583mrdquo Physical Review Letters vol81 no 21 pp 4549ndash4552 1998

[81] E Del Giudice P R Spinetti and A Tedeschi ldquoWater dynamicsat the root of metamorphosis in living organismsrdquoWater vol 2pp 566ndash586 2010

[82] J Sachs ldquoPhysiologische Notizen II Beitrage zur ZelltheorierdquoFlora vol 75 pp 57ndash67 1892

[83] E Del Giudice G Preparata and G Vitiello ldquoWater as a freeelectric dipole laserrdquo Physical Review Letters vol 61 no 9 pp1085ndash1088 1988

[84] E Del Giudice and A Tedeschi ldquoWater and autocatalysis inlivingmatterrdquo Electromagnetic Biology andMedicine vol 28 no1 pp 46ndash52 2009

[85] N Marchettini E Del Giudice V Voeikov and E TiezzildquoWater a mediumwhere dissipative structures are produced bya coherent dynamicsrdquo Journal of Theoretical Biology vol 265no 4 pp 511ndash516 2010

[86] I Bono E Del Giudice L Gamberale and M Henry ldquoEmer-gence of the coherent structure of liquidrdquoWater vol 4 pp 510ndash532 2012

[87] M Buzzacchi E Del Giudice and G Preparata ldquoCoherence ofthe glassy staterdquo International Journal of Modern Physics B vol16 no 25 pp 3771ndash3786 2002

[88] R Arani I Bono E Del Giudice and G Preparata ldquoQEDcoherence and the thermodynamcs of waterrdquo InternationalJournal of Modern Physics B vol 9 pp 1813ndash1841 1995

[89] E Del Giudice and G Preparata ldquoA new QED picture of waterunderstanding a few fascinating phenomenardquo in MacroscopicQuantum Coherence E Sassaroli Y Srivastava J Swain and AWidom Eds pp 108ndash129 World Scientific Singapore 1998

[90] G Vitiello ldquoTopological defects fractals and the structure ofquantum field theoryrdquo in Vision of Oneness I Licata and A JSakaji Eds Aracne Edizioni Roma Italy 2011

[91] A Szent-Gyorgyi ldquoBioenergeticsrdquo Science vol 124 no 3227 pp873ndash875 1956

[92] E Schroedinger What Is Life The Physical Aspect of the LivingCell Cambridge University Press Cambridge UK 1944

[93] A E Chubykalo V Pope and R Smirnov-Rueda Eds Instan-taneous Action at a Distance in Modern PhysicsmdashPro andContra Nova Science Huntington NY USA 2001

[94] N D Devyatkov ldquoInfluence of millimeter-band electromag-netic radiation on biological objectsrdquo Soviet PhysicsUspekhi vol16 pp 568ndash579 1974

[95] L Tisza ldquoThe theory of liquid heliumrdquo Physical Review vol 72no 9 pp 838ndash854 1947

[96] A Levstik C Filipic Z Kutnjak G Careri G Consolini andF Bruni ldquoProton glass freezing in hydrated lysozyme powdersrdquoPhysical Review E vol 60 no 6 B pp 7604ndash7607 1999

[97] S Pagnotta and F Bruni ldquoThe glassy state of water a stop andgo device for biological processesrdquo inWater and the Cell G HPollack I L Cameron and D N Wheatley Eds pp 93ndash112Springer Heidelberg Germany 2007

[98] J-M Zheng W-C Chin E Khijniak E Khijniak Jr andG H Pollack ldquoSurfaces and interfacial water evidence that


hydrophilic surfaces have long-range impactrdquo Advances inColloid and Interface Science vol 127 no 1 pp 19ndash27 2006

[99] B-H Chai J-M Zheng Q Zhao and G H Pollack ldquoSpectro-scopic studies of solutes in aqueous solutionrdquo Journal of PhysicalChemistry A vol 112 no 11 pp 2242ndash2247 2008

[100] B Chai H Yoo and G H Pollack ldquoEffect of radiant energy onnear-surface waterrdquo Journal of Physical Chemistry B vol 113 no42 pp 13953ndash13958 2009

[101] B Chai and G H Pollack ldquoSolute-free interfacial zones in polarliquidsrdquo Journal of Physical Chemistry B vol 114 no 16 pp5371ndash5375 2010

[102] E Del Giudice A Tedeschi G Vitiello and V Voeikov ldquoCoher-ent structures in liquid water close to hydrophilic surfacesrdquoJournal of Physics Conference Series vol 442 no 1 Article ID012028 2013

[103] L Businaro A de Ninno G Schiavoni et al ldquoCross talkbetween cancer and immune cells exploring complex dynamicsin a microfluidic environmentsrdquo LAb on A Chip vol 13 no 2pp 229ndash239 2013

[104] A I OparinTheOrigin of Life Macmillan NewYork NY USA1938

[105] A G Cairns-Smith Seven Clues to the Origin of Life CambridgeUniversity Press Cambridge UK 1985

[106] L Montagnier J Aıssa E Del Giudice C Lavallee A Tedeschiand G Vitiello ldquoDNA waves and waterrdquo Journal of PhysicsConference Series vol 306 no 1 Article ID 012007 2011

[107] Y Katsir L Miller Y Aharonov and E Ben Jacob ldquoThe effectof rf-irradiation on electrochemical deposition and its stabi-lization by nanoparticle dopingrdquo Journal of the ElectrochemicalSociety vol 154 no 4 pp D249ndashD259 2007

[108] K H Pribram ldquoBrain and quantum holography recent rumi-nationsrdquo in No Matter Never MindmdashFundamental ApproachesM Jibu T Della Senta and K Yasue Eds John BenjaminsAmsterdam The Netherlands 2001

[109] E Del Giudice and G Preparata ldquoCoherent dynamics in wateras a possible explanation of biological membranes formationrdquoJournal of Biological Physics vol 20 no 1ndash4 pp 105ndash116 1995

[110] E Coen Cells To Civilizations The Principles of ChangeThat Shape Life Princeton University Press 2012httprico-coenjicacukindexphpMain Page

[111] A M Pietak ldquoElectromagnetic resonance in biological form arole for fields in morphogenesisrdquo Journal of Physics ConferenceSeries vol 329 no 1 Article ID 012012 2011

[112] P Claverie and G Jona Lasinio ldquoInstability of tunneling andthe concept of molecular structure in Quantum MechanicsThe case of pyramidal molecules and the enantiomer problemrdquoPhysical Review A vol 33 pp 2245ndash2253 1986

[113] L M Ricciardi and H Umezawa ldquoBrain and physics of many-body problemsrdquo Kybernetik vol 4 no 2 pp 44ndash48 1967

[114] M Jibu and K Yasue ldquoThe basic of quantum brain dynamicsrdquoin Rethinking Neural Networks Quantum Fields and BiologicalData K H Pribram Ed pp 121ndash145 Lawrence Erlbaum NewJersey NJ USA 1993

[115] M Jibu K H Pribram and K Yasue ldquoFrom conscious experi-ence tomemory storage and retrieval the role of quantumbraindynamics and boson condensation of evanescent photonsrdquoInternational Journal of Modern Physics B vol 10 no 13-14 pp1735ndash1754 1996

[116] G Vitiello My Double Unveiled John Benjamins AmsterdamThe Netherlands 2001

[117] G Vitiello ldquoThe dissipative brainrdquo in Brain and Being G GGlobus K H Pribram and G Vitiello Eds pp 255ndash266 JohnBenjamins Amsterdam The Netherlands 2004

[118] W J Freeman and G Vitiello ldquoNonlinear brain dynamicsas macroscopic manifestation of underlying many-body fielddynamicsrdquo Physics of Life Reviews vol 3 no 2 pp 93ndash118 2006

[119] W J Freeman and G Vitiello ldquoDissipation spontaneous break-down of symmetry and brain dynamicsrdquo Journal of Physics Avol 48 Article ID 304042 2008

[120] M Bischof ldquoSynchronization and coherence as an organizingprinciple in the organism social interaction and conscious-nessrdquo Neuroquantology vol 6 no 4 pp 440ndash451 2008

Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014

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PeptidesInternational Journal of


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International Journal of

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Zoology


Molecular Biology International

GenomicsInternational Journal of


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depends on the same dynamics which produces the eventBiochemical reactions and the spreading of informationabout them should be two different aspects of the samedynamics and in particular do not need additional expensesof energy

The problem of biocommunication has been addressedin recent times within the frame of the molecular paradigmwhich states that a living organism is an ensemble of appro-priate molecules kept together solely by chemical forceswhose essential features are that they can be always reducedto pairwise interactions In this frame the problem ofcommunication has been reduced to the ligand-receptormodel as described in Section 2 In Section 2 we will describethe historical development of the attempts to this kind ofexplanation However the final result is unsatisfactory atleast for two reasons First the existence of chemical codesremains unexplained since no reason is given why amoleculeis able to encounter its molecular partner in the sequenceunderlying the given biological cycle just in the right place atthe right time this would demand a long-range recognitionand attraction among molecules The second reason is thatthe spreading of information about each molecular eventto the other component molecules of the organism wouldrequire the emission of signals such as chemical messengersor electromagnetic signals whose formation would requireenergyThe huge ensemble of all the signals necessary to keepother parts of the organism informed about what is going onin one part so that they are able to act in an holistic waywould demand an immense consumption of energy On thecontrary we know that the energy demands of an organismare quite moderate [2]

Therefore we are compelled to opt for a differentparadigm which is offered naturally by modern quantumfield theory [3ndash5] According to Quantum Physics eachobject cannot but fluctuate not only material particles butalso fields are undergoing spontaneous fluctuations that isfluctuations occurring without any external supply of energyUnder conditions clarified by the theorywhichwewill shortlydescribe in Section 4 the quantum fluctuations of manyobjects are able to correlate with their phases producing acommon oscillation of all the components in unison Thesystem therefore enters into a state which in the physicaljargon is termed ldquocoherent staterdquo The energy of an ensembleof components in a coherent state is lower than the energyof the same ensemble in a noncoherent state since theonset of coherence eliminates all the ldquouselessrdquo movements ofcomponents which give rise to the entropy of the system andconcentrates the energy on a smaller number of degrees offreedom able to use this energy to produce external work [6ndash9] This property of coherent systems could implement therequirements of Prigogine for dissipative structures [10] Inorder to abide by the second law of thermodynamics theprocess of energy concentration demands that some energyshould be released outwards so that in order to becomecoherent a system should be an open system In a coherentsystem made up of atomsmolecules there is therefore aphysical field able to keep the long-range correlation amongthe components [11] This correlation field can be shownto be just the electromagnetic potential whose space-time

derivatives give rise to the well-known electromagnetic fields[12] Therefore what keeps the molecular components corre-lated among them not in a pairwise way but in a truly collec-tive many-body way is not the electromagnetic field whoseproduction would demand energy but the electromagneticpotential whose appearance in a coherent system produces anet saving of energy [13ndash17]The physical variable responsiblefor correlation in this vision is not the energy but the phaseof the system We will discuss this point further in Section 3Recently strong experimental evidence about the existenceof coherent correlations among biomolecules and the role ofelectromagnetism in biocommunication has been reported[18 19]

The perspective outlined above emerges from modernQuantum Physics whose validity in the understanding ofelementary particles atoms and molecules has been fullyestablished in the last century Moreover this approachcontrary to the physics of the past either Classical Physicsor old quantum mechanics does not allow us to addressphysical objects in isolation but only as parts of an extendedreality the field where its connectedness with other objectsis pivotal The communications among all the componentsof the physical systems occur via quantum fluctuationswhich cannot be reduced to the actual fluctuations of thecomponents but also include the fluctuations of the vacuumThe vacuum therefore could be assumed to be an agent forthe spreading of communication among components [20]Quantum FieldTheory only recently has been able to get outof themicroscopicworld of elementary particles and has beenused to analyzemacroscopic systems too such as crystals andsuperconductors It can be proposed as a good candidate forunderstanding living organisms [3ndash5]

The aim of the present paper is to provide first a conciseoverview of the historical development of the problem ofbiocommunication and of the formation of a collectivedynamics in living organisms second to point out thedeficiencies of the purely molecular approach and the needfor coherence in the living dynamics and third to sketch theconceptual framework offered by Quantum Field Theory forthe understanding of the onset of coherence in matter andliving organisms

The paper is organized as follows In Section 2 we willdescribe the problem of biocommunication and the emer-gence of collective behaviorwithin themolecular paradigmofbiology In Section 3 wewill discuss the contributions offeredby approaches to biology different from molecular biologyin Section 4 we will introduce and discuss the possibilitiesprovided by the quantum field theoretical approach inSection 5 we present some experimental corroborations forthis approach and finally in Section 6 we will draw someconclusions and provide some outlook

2 The Molecular Approach toBiocommunication

Biological communication conventionally is assumed tobe entirely chemically mediated Modern views still are


























































120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology


























































120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology

















































120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology










































120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology
































120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology





















120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology












120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology



120575119873120575120593 ge1

2(1)














119875119873 = 119875119873 = 1198751205823(119873

119881) = 119875120582

3119889 (2)



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology



1198982= 1198642minus 11988821199012= ℎ2(]2 minus1198882

1205822) le ℎ

2(]free minus

1198882

1205822) = 0

(3)
























































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology















































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology






































ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology






























ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology












ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology



ℎ1003816100381610038161003816]119894 minus ]CD

1003816100381610038161003816 le 119896119879 (4)















Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology






Acknowledgments



References





































































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology



















































































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology












































































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology
































Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology








Volume 2014

Zoology






















Advances in

Virolog y



Volume 2014




Enzyme Research



Microbiology

Documents

Review Article Communication and the Emergence of ...downloads.hindawi.com/archive/2013/987549.pdf · m apart, a distance ten thousand times the range oftheknownchemicalforces[ ,