University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar-energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 19 edition of Science. The researchers have engineered small molecules that support long-lived quantum coherences.

Coherences are the macroscopically observable behavior of quantum superpositions. Superpositions are a fundamental quantum mechanical concept, exemplified by the classic Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment, in which a single quantum particle such as an electron occupies more than one state simultaneously. [1]

I do not know if anyone has actually understood the philosophical implications of superpositions, ESPECIALLY when it comes to life-related particles.

In fact, it is like proving with hard evidence that things can be like Parmenides thought: If things can be in different states at the same time, then actually everything can be everything, nothing “changes”, every difference you see could be an illusion, all you see is One…