Entanglement, the physical phenomenon which can only be explained quantum mechanically at this point, is mostly observed in very simple systems, at relatively low energies and over small distances.
But there's news today that we may have found evidence of entanglement occurring in much more complicated system - and even in photo-synthesis processes.
From the Physics ArXiv blog:
"[A] new, more robust face of entanglement is beginning to emerge from other types of experiment. For example, physicists have recently found the signature of entanglement in the thermal states of bulk materials at low temperatures. This has huge implications for biological systems: if entanglement is more robust than we thought, what role might it play in living things?Now we're beginning to find out. In the first rigorous quantification of entanglement in a biological system, an answer is beginning to emerge. Researchers from various institutions in Berkeley California have show that molecules taking part in photosynthesis can remain entangled even at ordinary atmospheric temperatures.
The evidence comes from detailed study of light sensitive molecules called chromophore that harvest light in photosynthesis. "
Read the full article here.
How cool is that? Normal plant life, if this is right, is only able to harvest the energy of the Sun via this fundamentally non-deterministic process.
It may exist over short distances, but like quantum tunneling which makes solid state electronics possible, it has huge implications at the human scale.
Neat!
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