ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Toward Ultimate Computing 19
Figure 1.8: Branching box fractal in which patterns are identical at every scale, or
dimension. Long range order is present. Computer generation by Conrad
Schneiker.
Proteins and their components oscillate among specific conformational states
which exist transiently for durations ranging from femtoseconds (10 -15 sec) to
minutes or longer. As will be described in Chapter 6, functional conformational
states appear coupled to nanosecond (10 -9 sec) oscillations and more prolonged
“metastable states.” Herbert Fröhlich, an eminent physicist who helped develop
the theory of superconductivity in the 1950’s, has devoted recent efforts to the
question of cooperativity in biological systems. Fröhlich (1970, 1975, 1984) argues
that biochemical energy supplied to biomolecular assemblies can result in coherent
elastic vibrations of individual subunits in the sub-nanosecond time range. The effect
presupposes a voltage effect in the biomolecule (i.e. an “electret”) and an organized