Episode 91 · Quantum Biology, part 2 of 3
Spins and Tunnelling: The Robin's Compass, Cheating Enzymes and the Protons in Your DNA
Day two on the houseboat. Wren and Gus build the radical-pair mechanism from first principles, put a quantum compass through an engineering design review, and follow robin Cry4 from candidate (Günther 2018) to magnetically sensitive protein (Xu et al., Nature 2021), plus the 2023 to 2025 follow-ups (tryptophan-chain timing, Cry4b ruled out, membrane ordering, superoxide and quantum Zeno models). They weigh the radiofrequency disruption results (Ritz 2004, Engels 2014, Goforth et al. 2025 sea turtles), the magnetite beak story's collapse, the 100,000-fly null result (Bassetto 2023), monarch cryptochrome knockouts and the neural recordings due after December 2026. The second half covers tunnelling from first principles, soybean lipoxygenase's kinetic isotope effect of about 80, the Klinman versus Warshel dynamics debate, Turin's vibration theory of smell, and Löwdin's DNA tautomers, from Slocombe, Sacchi and Al-Khalili (2022) to the 2025 counter-analysis. Wren Halloran and Augustin "Gus" Ferreira are fictional.
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Inside this episode
- Cold open: a robin in a funnel
- The weakness of the Earth's field
- Radical pairs from first principles
- A design review for a quantum compass
- Cryptochrome: from candidate to cryptochrome four
- The radiofrequency fingerprint
- Fights, failures and a fruit fly
- Magnetic field effects beyond the compass
- Tunnelling from first principles
- Enzymes that cheat at chemistry
- A cautionary tale: the quantum nose
- The protons in your DNA
- The ledger after day two
Production credits & AI disclosure
Scripts generated with Claude Opus. Synthetic narration generated with Edge TTS. Reviewed, listened to, and approved by Sankalp Thakur.