Eighty years ago, physicist Erwin Schrödinger asked a deceptively simple question: What is life? In a series of lectures in Dublin, later published as a short book, he proposed that the principles of quantum mechanics might underlie the complex organization of living things.
Now, in a provocative new research befitting the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, another physicist is proposing a radical new answer.
In his single-author study, Philip Kurian, director of the Quantum Biology Laboratory at Howard University, argues that life doesn’t merely obey the laws of quantum physics — it exploits them. In doing so, he says, life on Earth has likely performed about 1060 elementary logical operations over its 4.5-billion-year history.
That number is so staggering that it defies everyday intuition. If you tried to count to 1060, saying one number per second, it would take you longer than the age of the universe, squared. Even counting at one operation per Planck time (the shortest physically meaningful time: 5.4×10-44 seconds), it would still take over 13 billion years to count to 1060.
“This work connects the dots among the great pillars of twentieth century physics — thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics — for a major paradigm shift across the biological sciences,” Kurian said.
Superradiance and the Microscopic Calculators of Life
Kurian’s argument begins at the heart of the cell.
Last year, his team published experimental evidence showing that cytoskeletal protein filaments — a class of fiber-like structures that maintain cell shape — exhibit “superradiance,” a distinctly quantum phenomenon where particles behave as a coherent whole. This kind of coherence allows energy to move with remarkable efficiency through large groups of molecules.
In particular, Kurian’s group zeroed in on tryptophan, an amino acid known for its ability to absorb ultraviolet light and emit it at longer wavelengths. Networks of tryptophan are widespread in living organisms, found in cellular structures like microtubules, receptors, and axons.
Superradiant states within these tryptophan-rich fibers can process information astonishingly fast: around 10 trillion operations per second. That’s more than a billion times faster than traditional models of neural computation based on action potentials in neurons.
“Quantum biology — in particular our observations of superradiant signatures from standard protein spectroscopy methods, guided by his theory — has the potential to open new vistas for understanding the evolution of living systems,” said physicist Majed Chergui, who co-authored the 2024 experimental study validating Kurian’s theory.
Beyond the Brain: Aneural Life’s Hidden Code
One of Kurian’s most controversial ideas is that biological computation doesn’t begin with neurons.
For decades, neuroscientists have modeled cognition using spiking neurons as the basic information units. But such models ignore the vast majority of Earth’s life — organisms without nervous systems. Think bacteria, fungi, or plants.
In fact, Kurian argues these aneural organisms may actually do the bulk of life’s computing. That’s because their cells also contain superradiant fibers capable of quantum signaling. “The implications of Kurian’s insights are staggering,” said Chergui.
And since these organisms have existed for billions of years, their contribution to the total “computational history” of life is massive.
Kurian calculates that all eukaryotic life — organisms with complex cells — has performed approximately 1060 logical operations over Earth’s lifetime. By comparison, the entire universe is estimated to have performed about 10120. Remarkably, that means life on Earth may have executed the square root of the universe’s total computation.
“Kurian’s predictions provide quantitative bounds, beyond the colloquial Drake equation, on how superradiant living systems enhance planetary computing capacity,” said Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona.
What This Means for Quantum Computing — and the Universe
Kurian’s work has caught the attention of physicists and computer scientists working on the bleeding edge of quantum computing. His calculations suggest that biological systems already perform quantum computations with error-correction rates and energy efficiencies that outpace even the best artificial systems being built today.
“It’s really intriguing to see a vital and growing connection between quantum technology and living systems,” said Nicolò Defenu, a quantum researcher at ETH Zurich.
That might sound out of the question at first thought. After all, today’s quantum computers must be cooled to temperatures colder than deep space to preserve their fragile quantum states. Living organisms, on the other hand, are warm and messy. But Kurian’s model suggests that certain biological structures may naturally shield and stabilize quantum states even in this chaotic environment.
The study shows that superradiant protein fibers in axons approach within two orders of magnitude of the Margolus-Levitin bound — the quantum speed limit on how fast a system can evolve.
“And all this in a warm soup! The quantum computing world should take serious notice,” Kurian said.
From Astrobiology to Artificial Intelligence
What makes this discovery even more intriguing is its relevance beyond Earth.
Tryptophan and similar molecules have been detected in interstellar space. Some astrochemists believe they may be precursors to life. If superradiant quantum signaling is a fundamental property of these structures, Kurian’s ideas could influence how we search for life on other planets.
“It’s good to be reminded that the computation performed by living systems is vastly more powerful than that performed by artificial ones,” said Seth Lloyd, a quantum computing pioneer at MIT.
Kurian goes further. He suggests that life is not merely an incidental process occurring in the universe, but rather an information-processing phenomenon intricately linked to the universe’s physical laws.
“Though these stringent physical limits also apply to life’s ability to track, observe, know, and simulate parts of the universe, we can still explore and make sense of the brilliant order within it,” Kurian said. “It’s awe-inspiring that we get to play such a role.”
The findings appeared in the journal Science Advances.
