Quantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse
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Johnjoe McFadden. Quantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse
QUANTUM EVOLUTION. Life in the Multiverse
COPYRIGHT
PRAISE
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
1 What Is Life?
2 The Limits of Life
THE INGREDIENTS OF LIFE
ICE-COLD LIFE
HOW HOT IS TOO HOT?
LIFE IN THE DARK
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE
LIFE WITHOUT AIR
JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH
LIFE WITHOUT WATER?
SO WHAT ARE THE LIMITS?
EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE?
3 Life’s Biggest Action
‘WHY DO I LOOK LIKE DADDY?’
EVOLUTION
GENES
THE DOUBLE HELIX
HOW DNA WORKS
HOW DNA TELLS THE CELL WHAT TO DO
WHEN DNA DOESN’T WORK
4 How Did We Get Here?
THE HOOF-PRINT OF EVOLUTION
TO BE OR NOT TO BE, WITH HALF AN EYE
THE GENE CLOCK
HOW DID GENES EVOLVE?
THE PROTO-CELL
THE FIRST FOSSILS
THE BEGINNING
LIFE IN THE SOUP
LIFE FROM SPACE
FEET OF CLAY
ISN’T LIFE COMPLICATED ENOUGH?
JUST THE CHICKEN
THE ANTHROPIC UNIVERSE
5 Life’s Actions
MUSCLE POWER AND THE MYOSIN RATCHET
A CHEMICAL INTERLUDE
WATER
ENZYMES AS MOUSETRAPS
BACK TO MUSCLES
WHERE DO WE GET THAT ENERGY FROM?
WHERE DO WE GET OUR FOOD FROM?
6 What Makes Bodies Move?
‘THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER’
REFLECTIONS ON THE MOTIVE POWER OF FIRE
ARE WE HEAT ENGINES?
THE DEMON IN THE BOX
7 What is Quantum Mechanics?
MAX PLANCK AND THE END OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD
MAKING LIGHT OF A HOLE
UNCERTAIN OR UNREAL?
LIGHT AND TWO HOLES
8 Measurement and Reality
QUANTUM MEASUREMENT AND INFORMATION
FROGS SEE
DOING NOTHING
A WORLD WITHOUT CAUSE
REALITY AS PROBABILITY
WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE MOTION?
LIGHT AND SUNGLASSES
ZENO AND QUANTUM MEASUREMENT
9 What Does It All Mean?
HOW WONDERFUL IS COPENHAGEN?
THE CAT AMONGST COPENHAGEN’S PIGEONS
PREDICTING REALITY
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING
LIFE AFTER COPENHAGEN
THE FAIRIES
MY GOD, THERE’S TWO OF HER!
TIME TRAVEL
DECOHERENCE
10 The Beginning
QUANTUM MEASUREMENT AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
QUANTUM COHERENCE IN THE PROTO-CELL
QUANTUM MEASUREMENT IN THE PROTO-CELL
THE ANTHROPIC MULTIVERSE ORIGIN OF LIFE
ZENO AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
LIFE IN THE LABORATORY?
11 The Quantum Cell
WHERE IS THE QUANTUM – CLASSICAL BORDER IN DEAD CATS?
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE CELL
THE QUANTUM BORDERLAND
THE QUANTUM CELL
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ALIVE
12 Quantum Evolution
ADAPTIVE MUTATIONS
THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
QUANTUM EVOLUTION AND THE CELL
QUANTUM EVOLUTION TODAY
13 Mind and Matter
HOW NERVES MOVE MUSCLE
HOW OUR BRAIN MOVES NERVES
HOW CONSCIOUSNESS MOVES OUR BRAIN
THE COMPUTING BRAIN
INITIATING ACTIONS
BINDING OUR THOUGHTS
THE QUANTUM MIND
THE CONSCIOUS FIELD
BRAIN WAVES
DANCING TO THE SAME FIDDLE
WAVES MOVE MATTER
A CONSCIOUS COMPUTER
MAKING A QUANTUM DECISION
BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7, 8, 9
CHAPTER 13
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NOTES. 1: What is Life?
2: The Limits of Life
3: Life’s Biggest Action
4: How Did We Get Here?
5: Life’s Actions
6: What Makes Bodies Move?
7: What is Quantum Mechanics?
8: Measurement and Reality
9: What Does It All Mean?
10: The Beginning
11: The Quantum Cell
12: Quantum Evolution
13: Mind & Matter
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Отрывок из книги
JOHNJOE McFADDEN
GRAHAM CAIRNS-SMITH, author of Seven Clues to the Origin of Life
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So can living creatures will actions? In subsequent chapters, we will explore how all actions, at a molecular level, involve the motion of fundamental particles. Different actions will involve entirely different sets of movements of these particles. For a bird to decide to soar into the air, it must change the direction of motion of billions of particles within its body. This capability to direct motion in response to an internal will appears to escape classical determinism, and is why biological systems are so unpredictable. Its influence may even be carried over into our interactions with our surroundings. The stick of dynamite would become just as unpredictable as the pigeon, if a man was standing close by, armed with a length of lighted touch-paper. Our directed actions cause the movement of particles both within our bodies and in our surroundings.
I should emphasize at the outset that I will not be invoking any mysterious forces to account for our will, only the known laws of physics and chemistry. I am not suggesting any return to vitalism. Over the coming chapters we will explore how all biological phenomena – mobility, metabolism, respiration, photosynthesis, replication and evolution – involves the motion of fundamental particles. We will examine how these dynamics are governed, not by classical physics, but by the non-deterministic laws of quantum mechanics. At its most fundamental level, life is a quantum phenomenon. We will go on to explore the implications of this realization for our understanding of life’s origin, its nature, evolution and consciousness. I hope, by the end of this book, you will have a new and exciting insight into what it means to be alive.
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