New results about microtubules as quantum systems

Abstract

The latest news in quantum biology is the observation by the group led by Anirban Bandy-opadhyay about detection of quantum vibration in microtubule scale - their lengths vary up to50 m. If this observation can be replicated, one can speak about breakthrough in quantumconsciousness.The ndings reported in an earlier talk of Banduopadhyay give support for the general TGDinspired view about topological quantum computation (TQC) and allow for a rather detailedmodel in the case of microtubules. The idea is that ux tubes form a 2-D coordinate grid consistingof parallel ux tubes in two dierent directions. Crossing points would be associated with tubulinsand the conformational state of tubulin could dene a bit coding whether the braid strandsdening coordinate lines are braided or not (swap or not). In this manner any bit pattern atmicrotubule denes a particular TQC program. If also conformations are quantum superposed,one would have "quantum-quantum computation". It however seems that conformation changeis irreversible chemical reaction so that this option is not feasible.The TGD inspired modication of the proposal in terms of ux tube coordinate grids makingpossible TQC architectures with tubulin dimers dening bits dening in turn TQC program looksrather natural. Coordinate grids can be xed on basis of the experimental ndings and thereare 8 of them. The interpretation is in terms of dierent resolutions. The grids for A and Btype lattices are related by 2 twist for the second end of the basic 13-unit for microtubule. Anattractive interpretation for the resonance frequencies is in terms of phase transitions between Aand B type lattices. If A type lattices can be generated only in phase transitions induced by ACstimulus at resonance frequencies, one could understand their experimental absence, which is astrong objection against Penrose-Hamero model.TGD suggests also a generalization of the very notion of TQC to 2-braid TQC with 2-D stringworld sheets becoming knotted in 4-D space-time. Now qubits (or their generalizations) couldcorrespond to states of ux tubes dening braid strands as Penrose and Hamero seem to suggestand the emergence of MTs could be seen as an evolutionary leap due to the emergence of a newabstraction level in cognitive processing.