The Quantum Physics of Living Matter: From Electrons to Evolution

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Abstract
Living matter uses energy and material to maintain and replace the structures that sustain its activity. This monograph asks when quantum mechanics contributes measurably to that continuity. It examines local electronic, nuclear, photochemical, and spin-dependent events whose products can persist as chemical, electrical, or conformational records. The cases include respiratory electron and proton transfer, enzyme hydrogen tunnelling, photosynthetic energy transfer, vision, radical-pair chemistry, DNA maintenance, and protein-based inheritance. Established molecular mechanisms are distinguished from claims about their necessity for biological function.The proposed test follows a quantum-sensitive step through an intermediate record to a functional output, then asks whether it changes the work, fidelity, or renewal a system can sustain. Comparisons must give physically admissible alternatives the same limits on power, material, space, time, and error, including the cost of compensation. Models of completion before loss and coupled production show how a local effect could shift a threshold for renewal; they do not establish that such a shift occurs in a particular organism. Classical kinetic networks and alternative architectures provide controls. Evidence for extended coherence and neural quantum proposals is assessed separately. The book develops experimental designs in catalysis, bioenergetics, DNA maintenance, radical-pair sensing, and artificial cells. Its central claim is conditional: a quantum-sensitive mechanism matters to living organization when its measured contribution changes what a system can sustain under specified constraints.

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