Jim Al-Khalili's Quantum Biology Conference, Videos of talks, IAS Surrey 2012
http://www.ias.surrey.ac.uk/workshops/quantumbiology/
BBC 4 is currently airing Jim's 4 part Science Documentary on Biology exploiting Quantum Weirdness.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04v85cj/the-secrets-of...
- sources to come (mobile)
(2009) "Quantum biology? Tunneling in enzymes" Over the past two decades the possibility of quantum tunneling of protons in enzymes has attracted considerable attention. (See for example a piece in Nature by Philip Ball (my favourite science writer) or the proceedings of a meeting at the Royal Society
The observed large kinetic isotope effects and their temperature dependence are inconsistent with semi-classical transition state theory,
http://condensedconcepts.blogspot.com/2009/07/quantum-biolog...
PS: This post ended with I align myself with the skeptics, but it's hardly a new idea.
http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/jukgrp/klinman_group/Research....
I like the authors opening point "Therefore, an important challenge for the growing field of quantum effects in biomolecules is to clearly identify which quantum features with no classical counterpart may manifest in these systems and how they may influence the process of interest."
What's going to be really fun to find is biological systems which naturally exploit efficient quantum processes (tunneling, coherence, or otherwise) to help cells do their thing. This is a nice step on that road.
