Radical-pair mechanism
In quantum biology, the radical-pair mechanism is a proposed spin-chemistry explanation for magnetoreception, the ability for an organism to sense weak magnetic fields. It has been significantly studied in the context of bird migration.[1]
Mechanism
A radical is a molecule with an unpaired valence electron; thus, a pair of radicals is a radical pair. In the radical-pair mechanism, the unpaired electrons of the radical pair are spin-correlated, oscillating between a singlet state and a triplet state. Importantly, the radical pair spin state can interact with its environment, particularly with external magnetic fields, which influences which state it will be in.[1]
Effects
Discovery
The radical-pair mechanism was first described in the 1960s.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zadeh-Haghighi, Hadi; Simon, Christoph (2022-08-01). "Magnetic field effects in biology from the perspective of the radical pair mechanism". Journal of The Royal Society Interface 19 (193). doi:. ISSN 1742-5689. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0325.
- ↑ Adams, Betony; Sinayskiy, Ilya; Petruccione, Francesco (2018-10-24). "An open quantum system approach to the radical pair mechanism" (in en). Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) 8 (1): 15719. doi:. ISSN 2045-2322. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34007-4.
- ↑ Hore, P. J.; Mouritsen, Henrik (2016-07-05). "The Radical-Pair Mechanism of Magnetoreception". Annual Review of Biophysics 45: 299–344. doi:. ISSN 1936-1238. PMID 27216936. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27216936.
- ↑ Kominis, Iannis K. (2016). "The radical-pair mechanism as a paradigm for the emerging science of quantum biology". https://arxiv.org/html/1512.00450v2.