ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

110 Cytoskeleton/Cytocomputer
of biomolecules which are not actively transported was explained on the basis of
cytomatrix barriers and channels. However, Gershon, Porter and Trus (1985)
studied molecular diffusion through cytoplasm and came to a different
conclusion. They found that the cytoskeleton/cytomatrix/MTL comprised from 16
to 21 percent of cytoplasmic volume, and that the cytoskeleton/cytomatrix/MTL
surface area was from 69,000 to 91,000 square microns per cell (69 to 91 billion
square nanometers). Their data has been interpreted to suggest that the cell “solid
state” (cytoskeleton/cytomatrix/MTL) is not a barrier to diffusion since the
aqueous phase occupies 4/5 of cell volume. They conclude that proteins and other
molecules are dynamically bound to the solid state, accounting for the slow
diffusion (Figure 5.21).
Biologist James Clegg (1981) has discussed how the binding of “soluble”
enzymes to the solid state could account for the efficiency of various enzymatic
processes. A sequence of enzymes in a complex biochemical pathway is much
more efficient if physically arranged so that a cascade of reaction products occurs.
If the product of one enzyme is the precursor for its neighbor enzyme, transfer
time is minimized and the reactions are usefully facilitated. This also allows the
possibility of dynamic regulation of these enzymes by the solid state structures.
Clegg has also accrued evidence regarding the role of water within cytoplasm,
particularly surrounding solid state structures. Using neutron diffraction and other
techniques, Clegg has found that water adjacent to the cytomatrix is “ordered,”
that is aligned with polar bonds on the protein surfaces. Thus a layer of ordered
water extends at least 3 nanometers from the billions of square nanometers of
solid state surface area within each cell. This ordered water may be coupled by
dipole oscillation to dynamics of the solid state, inhibit the thermal dissipation of
protein oscillation energy from within the solid state, and shield calcium and other
ions from random solid state interactions. Clegg also suggests that additional
layers of slightly less ordered water (“vicinal water”) extending further from the
solid state would limit true “aqueous” water within cells to narrow cellular
“sewage channels.”