Introduction Intriguing Properties of Electrons in Molecular Systems

Recent experiments in molecular electronics support the idea that electrons and their molecular environments interact, and that electrons may retain information regarding these interactions. Dr. Sergio Ulloa, professor of Physics and nanostructures expert at the University of Ohio, says that

electrons “go through molecules like pin balls and leave all the bells ringing (atoms moving) as they pass by

”—and that “

electrons ‘remember’ not only where they are, but where they have been”

(quote from Ohio University Research Communications).

The Phenomenon of an Electrical Transference of Solution Crystallization Patterns

Background •Ferning of salt crystals is a well known phenomena which occurs when NaCl is mixed with certain proteins such as bovine serum albumin. Water, NaCl, and protein molecules interact electrically in a solution so their electrical fields mutually adjust when in contact and during solution crystallization. Patterns of solution structure are intimately linked with the electrostatic equilibrium of solution and protein (Kim, Young, et all, 2005).

Photomicrograph of sodium chloride crystallizing from a stock solution of 0.15 M aqueous solution. The crystals are of typical cubic symmetry.

Photomicrograph of .15 M NaCl solution to which 10 mg/mL Bovine Serum Albumin has been added. Note complex ferning of crystal patterns unique to proteinated salt solutions. 400 X magnification Bovine serum albumin, a biological substance, affects the growth patterns of salt crystals by inducing a “fern” structure.

In 1987 Dr. Bevan Reid, M.D. encountered an unusual phenomenon in which the fernlike bovine serum albumin protein crystallization pattern was induced in a pure salt solution after electrical contact with the proteinated solution via electrical current. He proposed that an electric current passed between chemically separate solutions may equilibrate the electrical dynamics of the solutions, so that when a protein is present in one solution, associated electromagnetic disturbances may generate equivalent crystal patterns in a plain salt solution, even when none of the parent protein is present in the second solution.

In other words, the electricity itself would generate the protein crystal pattern in the second solution, without the protein present chemically in the solution.

Experiments were carried out by Dr. Reid at the University of Sydney in Australia, and more recently in the year 2000 by Dr. Gary Schwartz and Dr. Linda Russek at the University of Arizona to test this idea. Results seemed to indicate that electricity alone was carrying out a transference of the crystal pattern. More recently, Jennifer Nielsen and Dr. Michael Ferrari developed a tightly controlled experiment at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to further test this electrical transference hypothesis.

Significance of the Electrical Transference Hypothesis

If indeed the flow of electrical charge alone is generating the replication of the crystal pattern in the second beaker, this seems to indicate that electrons can gather information about their environments and relay information at a later time, as if somehow recording the route it takes in the first beaker and then repeating the route in the second beaker to induce the fern crystallization phenomenon.

Can

Electrons “Remember”?

On the Transference of Solution Crystallization Patterns Via Electrical Current Jennifer L. Nielsen, Bachelor of Science Student, Physics / Pre-Med Supervisor: Dr. Michael Ferrari, Assistant Professor University of Missouri – Kansas City Department of Biology METHODS AND MATERIALS RESULTS

Experimental Trial • 0.15 M NaCl solution • 10 mg/mL Bovine Serum Albumin/.15 M NaCl solution

– 10 mg/mL albumin + 0.15 M NaCl – 6 20 mL glass beakers – Several pipettes w/ droppers – Three 20 cm AWG 26 copper wires, uninsulated except at center – 1.5 Volt D size batteries w/battery holder & wires – Microscope slides – Voltmeter and ammeter to measure voltage and current through circuit – Phase contrast light microscope equipped with digital camera

Experimental Trial Set up

Experimental Trial

• Set up to test whether or not an electrical current alone could transfer a fernlike protein crystallization pattern to a pure salt solution. To prevent leaching, uninsulated solid wire was used, and taped at the center to prevent the transference of any wicked matter.

Set Up: Beaker A (NaCl + albumin in water) Beaker B (NaCl only, in water) Connected electronic circuit with 1.5 V battery. Samples were taken from Beaker B at fifteen minute intervals, dried on a sterile slide, and photographed to be checked for any changes in formation of crystal patterns.

Control Group A

Control Group Trial A was set up to test whether or not an electrical current alone Experimental Trial A was set up to test whether or not an electrical current alone could transfer a fernlike protein crystallization pattern to a pure salt solution.

Set Up Beaker C: (Pure NaCl in water) Beaker D: (Pure NaCl in water)

Control Group B:

Control Group Trial B was set up to test for possibility of contamination and/or capillary action.

Set Up

Beaker E (NaCl only, in water) Beaker F (NaCl and Albumin, in water) Connected via “open circuit” containing no battery. Samples taken from Beaker F at fifteen minute intervals, dried, and checked for any changes in formation of crystal patterns.

Multiple trials were undertaken.

Pure NaCl samples dried from Beaker B at start of experimental trial. 400X magnification.

Control Group A

Plain salt after sharing current with plain salt in Control A, for 90 minutes. No noticeable changes in cubic structure. No ferning present. 400X.

• • Plain salt after open circuit connection with proteinated salt in Control B. (No battery present). No significant changes noted in crystal structure; no ferning. 400X.

Multiple trials were taken. Photos were judged by multiple blind sources as to which were more fernlike. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being most fernlike and complex, 3 being relatively complex, and 1 being simple/cube like, original BSA salt ferns were judged as 5, Beaker B produced crystals were judged an average of 4.5, Beaker D crystals were judged an average of 1, and Beaker C crystals were judged 1.5.

All plain salt solution samples were tested for protein contamination using Izit protein dye. No protein contamination was detected.

CONCLUSIONS

 It was found in the experimental group trials that fernlike crystals could be generated in plain salt after sharing a current with a proteinated salt, despite no apparent chemical contact between the plain salt solution in Beaker B with the proteinated solution in Beaker B.  It was found in the control groups that fernlike structures did not emerge from exposure to an electrical current alone, or from an open circuit looped with a proteinated salt. This, along with protein dye testing, contradicts capillary action and contamination as the source of the plain salt crystal ferning.  Evidence appears to support hypothesis of an electrical transference of crystal growth information patterns between the chemically isolated systems.

New Questions - What’s Really Going On?

The question now is, what’s really going on? According to Nielsen and Ferrari, the simple answer is, “We don’t know.” However, evidence from the pilot study indicates that a serious examination of the electrical transference hypothesis is needed. The necessity for further research is also indicated. If further studies continue to indicate the flow of electric charge as the source of the crystal structure transference, the next question is—how is this transfer occurring? Nielsen is quick to point out that significant exploration is necessary before we can draw a satisfying “This is how it happens” type of conclusion.

A Clue From the Drift Nielsen proposes that the gradually developing nature of the pattern of transference and the significant length of time (around 90 minutes) necessary to precipitate the complete transference of the fern pattern, points to a possible connection with the drift speed of the electrons themselves. While a flow of an electrical charge takes place at incredibly high speeds, electrons themselves are fairly slow to get across a circuit.

15 M NaCl after sharing current with albumin salt solution for 90 minutes in Experimental Trial. Note ferning and strong resemblance to proteinated crystals. 400X.

Control Group Trial B

Drift Speed of Electrons in copper wire used: = I/nqA = .18 A /[(8.46X1028/m3) (1.602 176 53 C) π (1.28X10-7m3)2 = 37.3 cm/hour in AWG 26 copper wire The length of the copper wire connecting the beakers is 20 cm. Therefore it would take about a half hour for electrons to get from the proteinated beaker to the plain salt beaker, which is close to the length of time it took for the pattern to begin to emerge.

At the present time, any speculation about how the electronic transference occurs is, admittedly just that—speculation. Jennifer says, “If a transference via electrical current is what’s really going on here— and our results, and the results of previous experimenters point that it is—something is going on that is not, at least at first glance, typically described by classical mechanics. Electrical current is not typically viewed as having memory properties. Schwartz and Russek at U of AZ have a hypothesis about systemic memory, in which looped systems are constantly collecting data which interacts with itself to produce a system that becomes more complex with time—this is called systemic memory hypothesis, and while the logic looks good at first glance, it’s not physics—it’s an offshoot of systems engineering theory. To really explain what’s going on in our experiments, we need a physical model. That’s what I’ve been looking for since our results started coming in, when it first started looking like it wasn’t just capillary action going on here. I wanted a simple explanation—this stuff was just getting contaminated, that it was only capillary action, or the previous researchers had allowed for some contamination to get through. We do need more experimentation. Crystal growth is a complicated process, involving chaos mathematics, and many factors play into what creates a finished crystal. There is of course a possibility that something usual is going on, and that a minute contamination that nobody has caught is somehow seeding the change. Nevertheless, after our study, and the studies of previous researchers, contamination really doesn’t appear to be what’s going on--this just doesn’t look like the classical explanations.” •There is, however, a wide open and ever expanding horizon of quantum possibilities.

•A phenomenon Einstein called “

Spukhafte Fernwirkungen

: ‘spooky action at a distance’—known as quantum entanglement—in which systems may be able to exchange information over distances in a nonclassical manner, could play a role. Benni Reznik, a theoretical physicist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, says that there are many forms of entanglement we don’t currently understand, and that all of empty space may be filled with pairs of entangled particles. His research group at Tel Aviv University in Israel has recently come to the conclusion that atoms in magnetic salts may “behave like tiny magnets and respond to each others' magnetic fields by adjusting their relative orientation” in a quantum process. Many metal salts exhibit magnetic properties to a degree and these results may have far reaching properties. Dr. Reznik’s paper was published in 2003 in

Foundations of Physics

(vol 33, p 167). •Thomas Durt of Vrije University in Brussels maintains that many more interactions produce entanglement than previously suspected by scientists. According to Durt, even human beings “are a mass of entanglements” (see

New Scientist

, 22 March 2004) and quantum entanglement may help explain the phenomena of life at its most basic level. Distinguished scientists such as Roger Penrose, professor of physics and medical scientist Stuart Hameroff believe our brains may operate on quantum properties. A recent conference at the University of Michigan speculate on the connection between quantum effects and emergent properties such as those expressed by living systems. Johnjoe McFadden, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey, believes quantum physics is related to evolution and the emergent properties of life.

•"If electrons can carry information which can bring about these kinds of mutual adjustments between systems, this could have far reaching implications in molecular electronics, and even biology," Nielsen speculates. "It could, hypothetically, even have implications on early evolution and emergent systems such as DNA. What we appear to have going on here is water and salt being electrically affected to take on a crystal structure as if it had come into contact with protein—does this mean that, if the building blocks of proteins were present in such a structurally affected solution, proteins will be more likely to take shape? That’s ‘way out there’ speculation of course, and it’s good practice to keep your eyes on what’s literally going on at your lab table. But it’s also important to realize that biophysics is a developing field, and these are the kinds of ideas scientists are actually throwing around today.” For additional information please contact: Jennifer L. Nielsen, Undergraduate Researcher,

[email protected]

Dr. Michael Ferrari, Faculty Mentor,

[email protected]