Quantum effects in biology and chemistry

我们的研究小组将解决化学和生物学中快速发展和极其重要的量子相干领域的前沿问题。最近的发展部分是由我们实验室和加州大学伯克利分校的新发现引发的，这些新发现与自然界如何利用光吸收材料特定排列的量子力学特性来有效地传输和存储太阳能有关。我们对海洋藻类的研究以及我们最近对共轭聚合物（如塑料太阳能电池和显示器中使用的聚合物）的实验表明，即使在室温条件下，也有可能利用量子效应实现控制。这是惊人的，因为以前的研究人员认为，这种量子效应只能在非常低的温度下在复杂的系统中发挥作用。这引起了科学作家的想象力，包括最近在《科学美国人》上报道我们实验的一位作家。现行的飞秒激光实验测量过程的速率，而我们将进行的新实验阐明飞秒时间尺度上过程的机制，因此我们能够了解它们是如何以及为什么发生的。我们提出实验来回答光合藻类如何收获太阳能以及它们如何利用量子力学定律的问题。

Our research group will address questions at the forefront of the rapidly developing and extremely important field of quantum coherence in chemistry and biology. Recent developments were triggered, in part, by new discoveries made in our laboratory and at UC Berkeley related to how nature takes advantage of the quantum mechanical properties of specific arrangements of light-absorbing materials to efficiently transmit and store solar energy. Our studies of marine algae in addition our recent experiments with conjugated polymers (like those used in plastic solar cells and displays) suggest that it is possible to achieve control using quantum effects, even under room temperature conditions. This is striking because previously researchers thought that these kinds of quantum effects could only operate in complex systems at very low temperatures. This has captured the imagination of science writers including one in Scientific American who recently reported on our experiments. Prevailing femtosecond laser experiments measure rates of processes, while the new experiments we will undertake elucidate the *mechanism* of processes on the femtosecond time scale, so we are able to learn how and why they happen. We propose experiments to answer questions about how photosynthetic algae harvest solar energy and how they take advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics.