Physics has a fundamental duality—the classical realm of Newton versus the subatomic, quantum realm of Einstein, Bohr, and others. Biology has the same duality––Darwin’s classical realm of animals and plants versus the microbial “quantum realm”. Newton’s classical physics could not explain the quantum subatomic realm. Similarly, the foundational laws and concepts of classical Darwinian biology of animals and plants cannot explain the microbial quantum realm: There are no individuals, no species, no single tree of life, no regulated gene transmissions, and no classical biological rules of evolution. As a result, quantum biology requires a whole new quantum theory if we are to understand our living systems, from ecology and evolution to agriculture and medicine.
Leonard Krishtalka is Emeritus Director, Biodiversity Institute, and Emeritus Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Kansas. His professional career as a vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist includes academic posts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh, the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, and, most recently, KU. In his parallel career as a novelist and essayist, he is the author of Dinosaur Plots & Other Intrigues in Natural History, the Harry Przewalski series of private-eye science mysteries, and the historical fiction, The Body on the Bed.