ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

142 Protein Conformational Dynamics
1985). Definitive resolution of the existence of solitons in biological materials
may await the imminent advent of nanotechnology (Chapter 10).
Davydov has considered other types of solitons such as those in solid threedimensional
crystals which have phase transitions. He contends that sufficient
anharmonicity in these lattice structures will produce soliton type excitations
representing themselves as local displacements of the equilibrium positions
moving along the molecular chains. These are called acoustic solitons. Other,
“topological” solitons are described as symmetry “kinks” which travel through an
ordered medium.
Toda (1979) invoked the concept of solitons to describe local displacements
from equilibrium positions of molecules in one dimensional lattices. He studied
molecular chains and assumed that displacement of individual molecules within
the chain interacted with neighboring molecules. Mathematical evaluation of
Toda lattices by Davydov show localized excitations described by a bell shaped
function characterizing a reduction in the distance between molecules in the
excitation region of the lattice. These are called “supersound acoustic solitons,” or
“lattice solitons” and have been modeled in proteins by Bolterauer, Henkel and
Opper (1986).
Davydov’s work further suggests that excess electrons can be captured by
supersound acoustic solitons and conveyed along with them, giving rise to
“electrosolitons.” Electron transfer between donor-acceptor pairs of proteins are
found in photosynthesis, cell respiration (ATP generation) and the activity of
certain enzymes. These arrangements of structures are often called electron
transport chains. Davydov observes that electron transfer has traditionally been
assumed to be accomplished by quantum mechanical tunneling as first proposed
by Britton Chance and colleagues (Devault, Parkas, Chance, 1967). In these
systems, electrons are generally transferred between centers spaced about 3–7
nanometers apart. Davydov argues that this electron transfer can be better
explained by an electrosoliton.