Unique quantum state in photosynthesis

As animal life was humming along creating hemoglobin, natural processes on the vegetable side of the operation created chlorophyll, which sustains plant life along a different route, photosynthesis. We won’t conduct a tour of the chlorophyll molecule except to say that it consists of 137 atoms, whose sole purpose is to encase one atom of magnesium rather than the iron in hemoglobin. This ionized magnesium atom, when it comes into contact with sunlight, allows carbon and water to form a very simple carbohydrate. How photons of light from the sun can create this new product opens up new mysteries, but once the simplest carbohydrate molecule was generated by plant leaves, an evolutionary breakthrough was made. The machinery that manufactures chlorophyll took a separate track from the machinery that manufactures hemoglobin, which is why cows eat grass instead of being grass.

(Note: In photosynthesis, chlorophyll only needs the carbon atom in carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen atom into the air. You may say, aha, that’s where the free oxygen comes from that isn’t stolen by other atoms. But unfortunately, chlorophyll needs a cell to live inside, and that cell required free oxygen for its construction before chlorophyll could start to operate.)

Now we have a context for asking the right question. The mystery of how life first began comes down to the transition from ‘lifeless’ chemical reactions to ‘living’ ones. Is life simply a sideline of universal chemical behavior throughout creation? Any answer will also have to include why only some atoms and molecules engage in this sideline while the rest continue on their merry way.

Almost all the free energy available for life on our planet comes from photosynthesis. Besides needing their own supply of energy to grow, plants are at the bottom of the food chain for all animal life on land. When sunlight hits cells that contain chlorophyll, the energy in the sunlight is ‘harvested,’ almost instantaneously being passed along for chemical processing into proteins and other organic products. This energy transfer occurs with 100 percent efficiency. No energy is wasted as heat.

Researchers “discovered something quite unique: in photosynthesis sunlight retains its wave-like state long enough to sample the whole range of possible targets while simultaneously ‘choosing’ which one is the most efficient to connect with. By looking down all the possible energy pathways on offer, the light won’t waste energy picking any but the most efficient ones.

The mechanism involves matching the resonance of both the light and the molecules receiving its energy. This is like two tuning forks vibrating exactly alike and known as harmonic resonance.

An entire new theory posits that living things are embedded in a ‘biofield’ that originates at the electromagnetic level or perhaps at an even subtler quantum level, yet to be explored. The breakthrough with photosynthesis was a turning point.

Deepak Chopra and Menas C. Kafatos, You are the Universe: Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters (Harmony Books, 2017), 222-229.