Although this book deals with some very deep and challenging scientific ideas, it manages to both educate and entertain through a clear and persuasive narrative. “How does life happen?” is a perplexing query, and Al-Khalili and McFadden examine the many routes scientists have taken to reach an answer. Definitely worth reading and thinking about!

Popular science level book on the current level of knowledge (and somewhat lower level of understanding) of the role of quantum mechanics in biology. Essentially, we know that quantum mechanical processes are going on, we can describe them, but we don't understand them enough to replicate them.
Very interesting but varies between painfully simple and painfully complicated. There were large sections of explanation I could skip through and then short sections where I had to go online to find out more information. I felt that the it wasn't really sure what level it was pitched at?
Despite this occasional frustration I felt very informed and knowledgeable by the time I had got to the end of the book. ( )

So far...

Interesting information but erratic writing style. Some sections are well written and understandable. Then you get badly written, overly simplified sections comparing quantum physics properties with more "understandable" everyday items... and the explanation falls apart. There is also too much repetitiveness between chapters, and little cohesion between chapters. There is also too much bouncing around between subjects. But the information is just so interesting. Maybe it is time to resurrect the extinct editor? ( )

My advice is: read the first half.

First, the good: Both authors are working scientists in their field who know what they're talking about, so the translation errors of pop-science writing are minimized. And the field is of course objectively very cool; the thought of quantum mechanics ticking away in living cells including our own is kind of mind-blowing. And the first chapters--where there is actually science and experimental data to discuss--are, if very technical and not always very clear, extremely interesting. I feel like I can at least use the right words in the right order to convey the basic ideas they covered on magnetoreception, photosynthesis, and scent, for example. (Though autocorrect is flagging magnetoreception for me, so maybe not.)

Now, the bad: The physics side of the science was described well, but the biology writing was a mess, with information out of order, and reader knowledge assumed that at least I don't have (I haven't taken a biology class for almost thirty years! Have some pity here!). And those were in the chapters were the writers were describing actual data and experiments.

Then I got to the chapter on genes; from that point on, the writers are not describing any kind of existing scientific knowledge. Everything is speculative. Quantum mechanics may play this kind of role in genetics, or maybe not, we don't know, no one has done the experiment yet, but it's an interesting idea, and here's an interesting idea about how quantum physics may have played a role in the origin of life on earth, of course no one has any idea how to test it, etc. and so on, until it quite drained from me the will to live ... or at least the will to finish the book. I gave up at p. 300 when I realized that yes, they were actually going to spend the last chapter of the book, revisiting and expanding on ideas from several of the other chapters, and I could no longer force my eyeballs to finish a sentence.

I've had this book on the to-read pile since it's publication, so I'm pleased to have finally worked my way through (most of) it, and I'm happy to have some kind of understanding of what quantum biology is and some of the research directions and findings. And if you enjoy reading around 160 pages of entirely speculative considerations of what the science *might* find at some point in the future, in extremely technical language, if and when someone actually does the experiments, you may have a different experience reading the second half than I did. ( )

While my profession involved understanding biology and physiology it never entered my mind that quantum physics was involved. The importance of quantum phenomena for enzymes, DNA replication, and smell opened my eyes. I have been fascinated by descriptions of elementary particles for years. It had always seemed irrelevant for day to day life. I now see it plays a role in many things we are just beginning to understand. ( )