Recently, there has been some interest in Froehlich's and Hameroff's
speculations on small-scale dynamic phenomena as having a role in neuronal
functioning. Professor Harold Morowitz indicates he has done some
experiments where he desiccated tardigrades, froze them to 2 degrees
Kelvin, and then revived them. They functioned normally. Tardigrades have
relatively sophisticated nervous systems. He had investigated training
them so he could see whether the training survived the experiment, but
that turned out to be too difficult to do. The point he makes is that
basic processes of life are structural and highly robust, since they
survive complete elimination of their dynamics and then start back up with
the application of thermal (noisy) energy. It may be possible to modify
Morowitz's experiment to test Froehlich's (coherent vibration of polar
molecules) and Hameroff's (tubulin conformation) models for neuronal
functioning.
Comments?
--
Harry Erwin
Internet: herwin at gmu.edu
Just a dumb graduate student working on Katchalsky network models....
(And if you believe that, I have a ranch in California to sell you.)
