Prof Jim Al-Khalili
University of Surrey

For almost a century, physicists and chemists have developed and learned to harness and apply the strange rules of quantum mechanics to explain the microscopic world of atoms and molecules and the elementary building blocks of our universe. But biologists have thus far not needed to learn about this powerful yet counterintuitive field. Now, experimental evidence and theoretical advances have pushed quantum biology to the forefront of research. This talk will shed light on some familiar phenomena in biology, from photosynthesis to smell, that seem to require quantum mechanics in order to be full understood.