We just caught biological proteins acting like single quantum objects, vibrating perfectly in sync even at room temperature.
March 17, 2026
Original Paper
Terahertz cavity hybridization of collective proteins vibrations
arXiv · 2603.14476
The Takeaway
Researchers demonstrated that proteins can form a 'Frohlich condensate,' a rare state where thousands of molecules sync their vibrations to act as one. This suggests that biology might use high-speed quantum synchronization to manage energy and signals inside living cells.
From the abstract
Hybrid light-matter states have transformed photonics, yet their realization with driven collective vibrations in biological systems remains an open challenge. Here we show that optically pumped R-phycoerythrin proteins at room temperature support coherent sub-terahertz vibrational modes consistent with Frohlich condensation, and that these modes hybridize with confined terahertz cavity photons in a microfluidic cavity platform. The resulting spectra exhibit a resolved doublet, power- and concen