Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain

July 25, 2024
19 min
Season 2024 - Episode 19: Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain

Season 2024 - Episode 19: Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain

Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain - Episode 19

Overview

Nobel laureate Roger Penrose is widely held to be one of the most brilliant living physicists for his wide-ranging work from black holes to cosmology. And then there’s his idea about how consciousness is caused by quantum processes. Most scientists have dismissed this as a cute eccentricity—a guy like Roger gets to have at least one crazy theory without being demoted from the supersmartypants club. The most common argument for this dismissal is that quantum effects can’t survive long enough in an environment as warm and chaotic as the brain. Well, a new study has revealed that Penrose’s prime candidate molecule for this quantum activity does indeed exhibit large scale quantum activity. So was Penrose right after all? Are you a quantum entity?

Episode Information

TV Show

PBS Space Time

Season

Season 2024

Episode Number

19

Air Date

July 25, 2024

Runtime

19 minutes