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https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5121155 https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5121155 A vibrational theory of smell... Is olfaction a quantum thing?

• jerf 4y ago
  Well, yes. The details of biochemical interactions involved in olfaction involve a lot of quantum mechanics, which also affects the way molecules vibrate. But this is not some sort of "quantum woo" or mysterious thing... it's just quantum mechanics being quantum mechanics, which is, after all, the dominant and most correct theory of how small things perform in the real world, not some utterly mysterious incomprehensible magic. So... of course it's a quantum thing. Everything's a quantum thing, seeing as how relativity, the other dominant and most correct theory of how things perform, is not generally relevant to energy regimes you live in. Things are not specially distinguished by being "quantum things". The surprise would be to find something that isn't. (Which could conceivably include gravity at this point in time, though I think that even if we can't prove it's quantized at this juncture in time physicists would be stunned to discover it wasn't.) It should also be observed that "quantum" does not mean any sort of meaningful "entanglement" mystery is going on. Frankly we'd all have a more accurate view of the world if the word "quantum" was associated with "boring" and "engineering" rather than "mysterious". It isn't that there isn't a bit of mystery there, it's just it's mostly boring and engineering with a tinge of mystery, rather than a whole big box of mystery. It can't be that mysterious if you can pop numbers in one side, run a mathematical crank, and get very accurate predictions out the other.
  • tudorw 4y ago
    thanks, I'll take a tinge of mystery :)