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Date and Time: Friday, April 06, 2007, 4 PM

Location: Kiewit Auditorium at Arizona Cancer Center, 1515 N. Campbell | map

Title: "Quantum Biology: Why life is not like tinker toys"
Presenter: Stuart Hameroff M.D., Professor, Anesthesiology and Psychology, Director, Center for Consciousness Studies, The University of Arizona
Presentation Description: Reductionist approaches based on classical physics view biology as the sum of lock-and-key type interactions among ball-and-stick biomolecules, a "tinker toys" perspective. Non-classical physical effects rooted in quantum mechanics are of acknowledged importance to intra-molecular activities, but considered to be washed out and insignificant at supra-molecular levels. However non-polar, hydrophobic regions and phases in membranes, proteins and nucleic acids are conducive to supra-molecular non-local quantum interactions which can account for biomedical phenomena for which reductionist approaches generally fail. These include cooperative effects in protein assemblies, mitosis, gamma synchrony EEG, neuropharmacology, consciousness and the essence of life itself.