ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

174 Models of Cytoskeletal Computing
8.2.12 Cytoskeletal Self-Focusing/Del Giudice
As described in Chapter 6, a group of scientists from the University of Milan
have applied the mathematical tools of “many body problems” to the activities of
biomolecular dipoles. Del Giudice, Doglia, Milani and Vitiello (1985, 1982) have
used quantum field theory to describe the electret state of biological systems
(ordered water surrounding linear biomolecules) and determined that there exists
a strong likelihood for the propagation of particle-like waves in biomolecules.
Further, the ordering of water should lead to self-focusing of electromagnetic
energy into filamentous beams excluded by the ordered symmetry. For ordered
cytoplasm, they calculate the diameter for the confinement and propagation of
particle-like waves (massless bosons, or solitons) in biomolecules to be about 15
nanometers, exactly the inner diameter of microtubules.
The proposal by the Milan group has a number of implications. Confinement
within filamentous regions excluded from water would favor the propagation of
electromagnetic energy in biological systems, and provide a mechanism for
alignment and communication (the “Indian rope trick”). Further, cytoskeletal
polymers may be capable of capturing and utilizing ambient or biologically
generated electromagnetic energy. One possible example is infrared energy which
is routinely generated by dipoles in biological molecules. This energy is generally
believed to be dissipated into heat within the aqueous cytoplasm, however “selffocusing”
could utilize this energy productively in a communicative medium. The
Milan model also includes lateral force generation by focused energy within
cytoskeletal filaments which would be useful in biomolecular maneuvering and
communication.
8.2.13 MT Automata, Holography/Hameroff, Watt,
Smith
The self-focusing of electromagnetic energy described by the Milan group is
thought to occur by an electret induced increase in the refractive index of
cytoplasm. A similar concept was proposed (Hameroff, 1974) in which
microtubules were thought to act like “dielectric waveguides” for electromagnetic
photons. Living tissue does transmit light more readily than nonliving material.
Van Brunt, Shepherd, Wall, Ganong and Clegg (1964) measured penetration of
sunlight into mammalian brain by routes other than the visual system.
Stereotactically placed photoreceptors recorded intensities of 10 -3 lumens in sheep
hypothalamus when surface intensity was 0.4 lumens, with a logarithmic
diminution. The most light permeable areas were in the temporal regions of the
skull, lateral to the orbits; the brain’s temporal poles and hippocampus received
maximum light intensity. When the animals were sacrificed, light penetration to
the hypothalamus remained constant for about 30 minutes following which the
brain opacity rose sharply. This suggests that some property of living brain tissue
is relatively translucent to optical photons; polymerized MT acting as waveguides
may be such a property.
Hameroff (1974) also proposed that the periodic array of MT subunits
“leaked,” or diffracted energy with 8 nanometer periodicity, resulting in a source
of “coherent” energy (or calcium ions) from each MT. Cytoplasmic interference
of the coherent sources from among multiple MT would lead to holographic
imaging in cytoplasm. Coupling of calcium concentrations to cytoplasmic sol-gel
states could “hardwire” holographic patterns into the microtrabecular lattice. In
parallel arrays of MT within nerve fibers, graded potentials or traveling action
potentials were thought to collectively activate “planes” of cytoplasm
perpendicular to the long axis of the MT and nerve fibers. These traveling planes