WeAreTheKey

This looks pretty promising as an advanced version of solar energy, by mimicking the way that plants absorb solar energy in incredibly efficient ways using quantum nonlocality, we may be able to solve our energy needs the same way. Check out this article, it's more and more amazing what the natural world is actually doing down at the fundamental levels...


BERKELEY, CA —Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. Speed is the key – the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing mystery that may have finally been solved.

A study led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley reports that the answer lies in quantum mechanical effects. Results of the study are presented in the April 12, 2007 issue of the journal Nature.

“We have obtained the first direct evidence that remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence plays an important part in energy transfer processes during photosynthesis,” said Graham Fleming, the principal investigator for the study. “This wavelike characteristic can explain the extreme efficiency of the energy transfer because it enables the system to simultaneously sample all the potential energy pathways and choose the most efficient one.”

Fleming is the Deputy Director of Berkeley Lab, a professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, and an internationally acclaimed leader in spectroscopic studies of the photosynthetic process. In a paper entitled, Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems, he and his collaborators report the detection of “quantum beating” signals, coherent electronic oscillations in both donor and acceptor molecules, generated by light-induced energy excitations, like the ripples formed when stones are tossed into a pond.

Electronic spectroscopy measurements made on a femtosecond (millionths of a billionth of a second) time-scale showed these oscillations meeting and interfering constructively, forming wavelike motions of energy (superposition states) that can explore all potential energy pathways simultaneously and reversibly, meaning they can retreat from wrong pathways with no penalty. This finding contradicts the classical description of the photosynthetic energy transfer process as one in which excitation energy hops from light-capturing pigment molecules to reaction center molecules step-by-step down the molecular energy ladder.

“The classical hopping description of the energy transfer process is both inadequate and inaccurate,” said Fleming. “It gives the wrong picture of how the process actually works, and misses a crucial aspect of the reason for the wonderful efficiency.”

The photosynthetic technique for transferring energy from one molecular system to another should make any short-list of Mother Nature’s spectacular accomplishments. If we can learn enough to emulate this process, we might be able to create artificial versions of photosynthesis that would help us effectively tap into the sun as a clean, efficient, sustainable and carbon-neutral source of energy.

www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/PB ... crets.html

That sounds amazing, especially if we can actually, like true photosynthesis, leave only a bi-product of........OXYGEN!!!!!

that would be fantastic.

While this is a grand discovery in the world of biology I don't see it as anything that will be usable as an energy source withing the next several decades. a "remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence" is also theoretically what creates nonlocal transference of information from one cell/molecule/person/planet to another cell/molecule/person/planet, that doesn't mean we can recreate it to serve us. They don't even understand the mechanisms much less the means to utilize such a concept for our uses... very cool idea, but for energy usage its really speculative and probably only thrown in there to grab people's attention. IMO. Though they're working on teleportation, so who knows

I don't know, we're already using solar panels to harness energy from the sun, so it sounds reasonable to me to construct them from materials and build them in such a way as to emulate plants photosynthesis now that we understand that the photon 'superpositions' are what allows for the ridiculously high effieciency of light absorption, whereas from what I can tell, all of our current solar panels use the same basic photo-electric conversion processes that have been around for decades.
Also, we're not so much "re-creating" the non-locality effects to transfer information here, we'd be simply using the already existing non-local properties of light, but finding better ways to absorb and utilize that energy. No transfer of information necessary. Just pure energy, baby!
Plus we wouldn't necessarily HAVE to understand the mechanisms in order to find useful means of utilizing the effects. Kinda like how fire was used for cooking and heat for millenia before anyone ever really understood what fire even is. As long as we can find a way to use it, I'm sure we will.

I see your point and I don't necessarily disagree with you. I'd be damn glad if it does come to fruition - if they do figure out how to allow for it to be used effectively the potential is enormous.

No kidding! Especially if they combine it with some of the techniques used in some of those videos you posted months back, like the guy who uses the focusing lenses to turn normal sunlight into high-intensity beams shining onto those small, square panels and getting like 4 times as much power from them....Wow...
I really can't see how solar wouldn't be the future of energy. It's just so endlessly abundant! At least for another few billion years