The role of quantum theory in biology

The computation of the properties of biological molecules has long been the most visible part of “quantum biology”. However, there is good reason to believe that these data cannot, by themselves, allow us to understand the deep properties of biological organization. It is pointed out that the quantum theory itself allows many modes of analysis which are distinct from those employed in quantum chemistry, and that these other modes are in fact implicated in basic biological interactions. Thus there is nothing “un‐physical” about them, even though they differ from those conventionally employed in quantum‐theoretical approaches to biology.