About the book: Quantum theory is considered to be the most successful theory in explaining the behaviour of the most of the physical phenomena in the universe to an unprecedented level of accuracy. So people thought that the functional process in a living organism may be also explained by the laws of quantum physics. We are not much concerned with this fact in quantum biology. One of the biggest questions in biology is whether the processes of life are able to exploit quantum effects to improve their lot. If nature has not found a way to exploit quantum mechanics, an equally important question is : why not? Is it merely an oversight on the part of evolution or is there some other deeper reason why evolution cannot exploit quantum mechanics? Indeed this is a very deep question. We do not know the answer yet or even I am not going to give an answer to this question in this book. The main focus of this book to identify some of the biological processes which cannot be explained using Newtonian dynamics. Someone may call it as non-trivial applications of quantum theory in contrast to the idea of universe made of elementary entities like electrons, protons, etc, which are governed by the laws unveiled in microscopic domain and hence known as trivial applications of quantum theory.
About the panellist: Prof. Sisir Roy: Honorary Visiting Professor and Senior Homi Bhabha Fellow at NIAS. His areas of specialisation are Quantum physics, Consciousness and Traditional knowledge system. | Prof. Narayan Behera: Professor, Swami Vivekananda (SVYASA) University, Bengaluru. His competencies lie in mathematical and computational modelling of physics and biology. | Dr. R. Srikanth: Associate Professor at the Poornaprajna Institute of Scientific Research Bangalore. His research interests span Quantum Information Science, Solar Physics—particularly supergranular network structures and dynamics—and the Philosophy of Science | Pravin Thomas, is the Director of the Department of Headache and Facial Pain, Narayana Health, Bangalore. He is a leading neurologist who first described the “Burning Vertex Syndrome’ and leads international initiatives such as the Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension Registry.