Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Gabriela Frajtag is twenty years old, recently graduated from Ilum School of Science in Brazil, and just won the Undergraduate Special Prize in FQXi's "How Quantum is Life?" essay competition — a global contest with a $53,000 USD prize pool judged entirely anonymously.
Her essay traces the history of quantum biology from Niels Bohr's 1932 "Light and Life" lecture to the present day, asking not just how quantum effects show up in living systems, but how they emerged in life in the first place. In this conversation with Gabe Fitzpatrick, Frajtag talks about what drew her to the question, the storytelling approach she took, and what it's like to win an international science prize from your home in Brazil.
This is one segment from a longer episode featuring five prize winners from the competition. Listen to the full episode here: qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/129/2026.05.13
Read Gabriela's essay, "The Quantum of Biology: History and Future": qspace.fqxi.org/competitions/entry/2391
FQxI produces this content through donations. If you'd like to support more conversations like this one, you can contribute at fqxi.org/support-our-work/donations
Gabriela Frajtag is twenty years old, recently graduated from Ilum School of Science in Brazil, and just won the Undergraduate Special Prize in FQXi's "How Quantum is Life?" essay competition — a global contest with a $53,000 USD prize pool judged entirely anonymously.
Her essay traces the history of quantum biology from Niels Bohr's 1932 "Light and Life" lecture to the present day, asking not just how quantum effects show up in living systems, but how they emerged in life in the first place. In this conversation with Gabe Fitzpatrick, Frajtag talks about what drew her to the question, the storytelling approach she took, and what it's like to win an international science prize from your home in Brazil.
This is one segment from a longer episode featuring five prize winners from the competition. Listen to the full episode here: qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/129/2026.05.13
Read Gabriela's essay, "The Quantum of Biology: History and Future": qspace.fqxi.org/competitions/entry/2391
FQxI produces this content through donations. If you'd like to support more conversations like this one, you can contribute at fqxi.org/support-our-work/donations
