Quantum Physics Meets Biology: a Case Study

Is there a role for fundamental quantum physics in biology or evolution? Quantum physics was invented about a century ago, but in recent years has been undergoing an epistemological exodus, with its ideas and methods expanding from physics into information and communication and associated technologies, but also, re-addressing fundamental questions of biology. This paper will give some background to explain these assertions, and will take up a particular case study showing how quantum mechanisms may be intimately involved in some key biological processes relating to molecular mechanisms of olfaction.