ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Protein Conformational Dynamics 147
energy filaments depends on the polarization density, or ordering of biological
water. Del Guidice’s group calculated a self focusing diameter of about 15
nanometers, precisely the inner diameter of microtubules! Del Guidice and
colleagues feel the cytoskeleton is the material consequence of dynamic self
focusing of polarization waves in the cytoplasm. The observed diameters of self
focused optical beams in simple nonbiological liquids are of the order of microns;
correlation among components is created by propagation of waves rather than as a
specific property of the material itself. The Milan group concludes that focusing
occurs in cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells due to the spatial coherence and ordering
imparted by cytoskeletal electret behavior.
The self-focusing predicted by the Milan group would have interesting
capabilities. Energy is refracted into beams which become surrounded by
cylindrical waveguides: the Indian rope trick. Coherency imparted to the refracted
energy by either a Fröhlich-type mechanism or periodic structure of a cytoskeletal
waveguide biomolecule could lead to holographic mechanisms. A rudimentary
theory of waveguide/holographic behavior in microtubules has been described
(Hameroff, 1974). Photorefractive crystals can be used to generate dynamic, real
time holography (Gower, 1985) and MT could be projecting dynamic cytoplasmic
holograms.
Models of cooperative protein dynamics described by Davydov solitons or
Fröhlich coherent oscillations may be different perspectives of the same
phenomena. Tuszynski and co-workers (1984) have compared the two approaches
and their respective emphasis. They observed that Fröhlich’s model concentrates
on time-independent effects, or stable states, to explain the establishment of order,
whereas Davydov’s model highlights time dependent propagation of order via
solitons.
The overlapping cooperative models of protein conformational dynamics
(coherence, resonance, solitons, electrets, self focusing) are of interest when
applied to specific structural elements with relevant properties. For example,
Davydov’s model of soliton propagation was originally applied to contractile
coupling between actin and myosin. The cytoskeleton appears uniquely suited to
take advantage of cooperative dynamics related to information processing.
Chapter 8 reviews evidence and models of cytoskeletal information processing
based on cooperative dynamics. The next chapter describes anesthesia-the result
of inhibition of collective, cooperative protein conformational dynamics in the
brain.