Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Microbiologist Michael Montague explains: the color of your iris is an aggregate effect. Around 10^17 pigment molecules adding up to a visible signature. Remove one and no one would notice.
What makes life quantum, in his telling, is the opposite. A single molecular event that cascades up to shape an entire cell, an entire organism, an entire life.
He gives the example of a cosmic ray hitting a strand of DNA, altering a nucleotide, which starts a chain that could end in a tumor.
He calls these "scale shifting effects." And he argues they're everywhere in living systems. That, he says, is the real answer to the question "how quantum is life."
Michael won 3rd place in our essay competition for his essay "Scale Shifting: Quantum Biology, Quantum Omics, & a Quantum Biotech Future."
Microbiologist Michael Montague explains: the color of your iris is an aggregate effect. Around 10^17 pigment molecules adding up to a visible signature. Remove one and no one would notice.
What makes life quantum, in his telling, is the opposite. A single molecular event that cascades up to shape an entire cell, an entire organism, an entire life.
He gives the example of a cosmic ray hitting a strand of DNA, altering a nucleotide, which starts a chain that could end in a tumor.
He calls these "scale shifting effects." And he argues they're everywhere in living systems. That, he says, is the real answer to the question "how quantum is life."
Michael won 3rd place in our essay competition for his essay "Scale Shifting: Quantum Biology, Quantum Omics, & a Quantum Biotech Future."
