Natural and bionic neuronal membranes: possible sites for quantum biology

Abstract

A new concept for bionic quantum technology is presented based on a hybrid of a silicon wafer on which is layered a phospholipid membrane, such as is found in biological cell membranes. The phosphorus atoms in the head groups of the membranes carry nuclear spins which serve as memory qubits. The role of control qubits may be played by unpaired spins of extra electrons on phosphate groups with a single negative charge, in polar, zwitterionic headgroups such as phosphatidylcholine (PC). Classical control gates and circuits are embedded on the silicon wafer, as in proposals by Kane and others for solid state quantum computing devices. A proposal to extend these ideas to neuronal membranes, which makes use of the chirality of the phospholipid molecules that make up its bulk, is also briefly sketched. The chirality of the phospholipid molecules is argued, at least at low temperature, to induce Chern-Simons couplings, which may give rise to robust qubits in topological winding states, defined on the cylinder mod punctures-which are the ion channels.