During his PhD at UMass, Nikhil Malvankar was laser-focused on quantum mechanics and the movement of electrons in superconductors.
Now a professor at Yale, the native of Mumbai, India, has pivoted towards biology to explain how bacteria breathe deep underground without the aid of oxygen.
Like other scientists, Mavlankar's career has evolved to blend previously separate ways of thinking, marrying biological and physical theories to explain the world around us.
To date, his lab at the Yale Microbial Sciences Institute has uncovered the evolutionary trick used by bacteria to breathe through tiny protein filaments, called nanowires, to dispose of excess electrons from the conversion of organic waste to electricity.
The adaptation has enabled bacteria to send electrons over distances 100-times their size through what the scholars refer to as bacterial "snorkeling."
The lab's previous work revealed the role and atomic structures of the nanowires, but to explain how the electrons were moving so fast, Mavlankar found himself returning to where he began - the world of quantum theory.
"Biological theory just couldn't explain their speed," explained the Associate Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.
In a recent collaboration with William Parson at the University of Washington, the team found rates of protein fluctuation a million-fold slower than the electrons, identifying that the electrons were 'surfing' a wave rather than 'hopping' like particles.
"We once thought of electrons conforming to classic Newtonian laws – just like a tennis ball will keep bouncing and always come back. Instead, we witnessed electrons behaving like an energy wave with the ability to travel rapidly through material coherently, even at room temperatures.
The findings are thought to be among the first to observe quantum mechanics in respiration, with significant implications for the field of quantum sensing and computation.
"With the exception of processes like photosynthesis, where sunlight moves very rapidly but over a very short distance, the common wisdom is that the biological world is a very noisy and hostile environment that effectively destroys any quantum effect," said Malvankar.
"Generally, we don't think of quantum mechanics in biology, so this is a big surprise."
"There's a lot of interest in quantum computers because they can store and process huge amounts of data. But this requires electrons to communicate with each other, and currently this can only happen at temperatures down to minus 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is expensive."
"In these bacteria, we are measuring quantum effects at room temperature. If we can learn lessons from nature itself, merging what we know about quantum mechanics and biology, we can start to apply the same principles to make the next leap for quantum computers."
Authored by William Parson, University of Washington, former Yale PhD student Peter Dahl, and Malvankar, the findings were published as a cover article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters .
