Perplexing Cats and Demons: Pointers to the Quantum-Physical Foundations of Life

Quantum phenomena can be identified in different forms in organisms, ranging from the exploitation of light photons for information processes or energy conversion over bioluminescence to the ubiquitous energy conversions from state differences of protons and electrons. These overwhelming diversity and ubiquitous presence of quantum processes at all levels of biological life provides strong hints for quantum-based foundations of biological evolution. A quantum-based interpretation of biological processes facilitates—scale independent—comparisons of biological phenomena over all realms of organic life. However, the final textbook of quantum biological evolution is still not written, so it is only possible to formulate preliminary hypotheses.