The physical principles underpinning self-organization in plants

Abstract

Based on laboratory based growth of plant-like structures from inorganic materials, we present new theory for the emergence of plant structure at a range of scales dictated by levels of ionization, which can be traced directly back to proteins transcribed from genetic code and their interaction with external sources of charge in real plants. Beyond a critical percolation threshold, individual charge induced quantum potentials merge to form a complex, interconnected geometric web, creating macroscopic quantum potentials, which lead to the emergence of macroscopic quantum processes. The assembly of molecules into larger, ordered structures operates within these charge-induced coherent bosonic fields, acting as a structuring force in competition with exterior potentials. Within these processes many of the phenomena associated with standard quantum theory are recovered, including quantization, non-dissipation, self-organization, confinement, structuration conditioned by the environment, environmental fluctuations leading to macroscopic quantum decoherence and evolutionary time described by a time dependent Schrödinger-like equation, which describes models of bifurcation and duplication. The work provides a strong case for the existence of quintessence-like behaviour, with macroscopic quantum potentials and associated forces having their equivalence in standard quantum mechanics. The theory offers new insight into evolutionary processes in structural biology, with selection at any point in time, being made from a wide range of spontaneously emerging potential structures (dependent on conditions), which offer advantage for a specific organism. This is valid for both the emergence of structures from a prebiotic medium and the wide range of different plant structures we see today.

Correlated Disorder in Myelinated Axons Orientational Geometry and Structure

“…Considering the scale of our problem, this is an acceptable average. These results indicate the occurrence of a crystallization-like process in the aged myelin membranes indicative of a transition from a quasi-critical fluctuating state out of equilibrium in the fresh state to a relaxed rigid state with Gaussian distribution approaching equilibrium in the unfresh state, which is in agreement with the hypothesis of criticality for living matter proposed by recent theories [10,[12][13][14][35][36][37].…”

“…The same behavior has already been observed for the conformational parameter of myelin [10], thus showing that this behavior is replicated for supramolecular structures at both the nanoscopic and mesoscopic levels. The variation of the stability index from 1.79 ± 0.02 to 2.00 indicates the transition from Levy to Gaussian distribution going from the fresh to unfresh state.…”

“…As the system moves toward equilibrium, the correlation degree of the disorder is expected to vanish, with the system ending up in an uncorrelated disordered state with Gaussian distribution. The quantitative characterization of the correlated disorder in the functional state is not only of interest for fundamental problems of the physics of life [10][11][12][13][14]36,37], but can open new perspectives, and may have important consequences for the understanding of injury to peripheral nerves and its treatment. This experiment provides a proof of feasibility of studies of statistical physics using scanning micro XRD, opening new perspectives to be explored by further investigations on the dynamics and time evolution of spatial fluctuations of the myelin ultrastructure.…”

“…These experimental structural probes provide a description of the assembly of myelin supramolecular structure, resulting in a highly ordered liquid crystal structure. However, this picture of a homogeneous structure for myelin is in contrast with the emerging picture of the supra-molecular assembly of biomaterials, which is a spontaneous process occurring widely in medicine [9], photosynthetic processes [10], and in nanotechnology [11]. In fact, the common feature of the resulting supramolecular self-assembled structures is the coexistence, in different spaces, spots of partially crystalline and disordered nanoscale regions.…”

A New Ab Initio Approach to the Development of High Temperature Superconducting Materials

“…These developments are supported by recent theoretical work [4], suggesting that protein structures have evolved as a key component of biological systems, precisely because their complex structures exhibit macroscopic quantum properties, which play a key role in biochemical electronic processes. This combination of theory and experiment is backed up by new, more general theory [5], which in addition, suggests that quantum criticality in complex matter also plays a fundamental role in the emergence of long -range order in living systems. In this paper, we review progress in these fields, outlining a common set of theoretical principles that we suggest could assist in the on-going development of HTSC materials using an approach, which builds on our understanding of the emergence of quantum critical structures in biological systems.…”