Is Quantum Mechanics Controlling Your Thoughts?

Science’s weirdest realm may be responsible for photosynthesis, our sense of smell, and even consciousness itself. By Mark Anderson| A sea slug neuron may tap quantum forces to process information. In humans quantum physics may be integral to thought.Dylan Burnette/Olympus Bioscapes Imaging Competition Graham Fleming sits down at an L-shaped lab bench, occupying a footprint about the size of two parking spaces. Alongside him, a couple of off-the-shelf lasers spit out pulses of light just millionths of a billionth of a second long. After snaking through a jagged path of mirrors and lenses, these minus­cule flashes disappear into a smoky black box containing proteins from green sulfur bacteria, which ordinarily obtain their energy and nourishment from the sun. Inside the black box, optics manufactured to billionths-of-a-meter […] Read More