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We consider the dependence of the electron transfer in photosynthetic complexes on correlation properties of random fluctuations of the protein environment. The electron subsystem is modeled by a finite network of connected electron…
Indoor light is known to be a new energy source to power uW low consumption wireless sensor networks (WSNs). For wireless electronic devices that consume tens of mW, it is still challenging to harvest this amount of power in a low light…
Using Photovoltaic systems is gradually expanded by increasing energy demand. Abundance and availability of this energy, has turned to one of the most important sources of renewable energy. Unfortunately, photovoltaic systems have two big…
In-vivo, real-time study of the local and collective cellular biomechanical responses requires the fine and selective manipulation of the cellular environment. One innovative pathway is the use of photoactive bio-substrates such as…
Light harvesting by photosystem II (PSII) in plants is highly efficient and acclimates to rapid changes in the intensity of sunlight. However, the mechanisms of PSII light harvesting have remained experimentally inaccessible. Using a…
Both the first evidence and the first discoveries of neutrino flavor transformation have come from experiments which use neutrino beams provided by Nature. These discoveries were remarkable not only because they were unexpected--they were…
The most important thermodynamic work performed by life today is the dissipation of the solar photon flux into heat through organic pigments in water. From this thermodynamic perspective, biological evolution is thus just the dispersal of…
Photovoltaic energy conversion in photovoltaic cells has been analyzed by the detailed balance approach or by thermodynamic arguments. Here we introduce a network representation to analyze the performance of such systems once a suitable…
Electronic Energy Transfer (EET) between chromophores is fundamental in many natural light-harvesting complexes, serving as a critical step for solar energy funneling in photosynthetic plants and bacteria. The complicated role of the…
Photosynthesis is a plausible pathway for the sustenance of a substantial biosphere on an exoplanet. In fact, it is also anticipated to create distinctive biosignatures detectable by next-generation telescopes. In this work, we explore the…
A central goal of synthetic biology is to design sophisticated synthetic cellular circuits that can perform complex computations and information processing tasks in response to specific inputs. The tremendous advances in our ability to…
Even though sunlight is by far the most abundant renewable energy source available to humanity, its dilute and variable nature has kept efficient ways to collect, store, and distribute this energy tantalisingly out of reach. Turning the…
In the last decade phase change materials (PCM) research has switched from practical application in optical data storage toward electrical phase change random access memory technologies (PCRAM). As these devices are commercialised, we…
The phase, amplitude, speed, and polarization, in addition to many other properties of light, can be modulated by photonic Bragg structures. In conjunction with nonlinearity and quantum effects, a variety of ensuing micro- or nano-photonic…
At photoelectrosynthetic interfaces, an electrochemical reaction is driven by excited charge-carriers from a semiconducting photoabsorber. Structure and composition of this interface determine both the electronic and electrochemical…
Optical spectroscopy is an important and widely used technique, for instance, to characterize new materials and to identify unknown compounds. Spectra are typically reported as a function of the wavelength of light, yet the information…
We theoretically discuss how to tune the competition between Forster transfer and spontaneous emission in a continuous and nondestructive fashion. The proposed approach is especially suitable for delicate biological systems like light…
Planktonic active matter represents an emergent system spanning different scales: individual, population and community; and complexity arising from sub-cellular and cellular to collective and ecosystem scale dynamics. This cross-scale…
Recent research has extended methods from the fields of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics into other disciplines. Most notably, one recent work creates a unified theoretical framework to understand evolutionary biology, machine…
Answering the titular question has become a central motivation in the field of quantum biology, ever since the idea was raised following a series of experiments demonstrating wave-like behavior in photosynthetic complexes. Here, we report a…