Over on Metanexus : The Online Forum on Religion And Science is a pretty interesting 3000-word interview with Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona on the theory that consciousness is somehow manifested on a quantum scale through microtubules in nerve cells. This interview is presented in anticipation of Dr. Hameroff’s upcoming conference “Quantum Mind 2003: Consciousness, Quantum Physics and the Brain” to be held in Tucson March 15-19, 2003. The quantum consciousness concept was first popularized by physicist Roger Penrose in his 1990 book The Emperor’s New Mind and again in 1995 with Shadows of the Mind. Getting into details of what Hameroff and Penrose propose is WAY beyond a SFT paragraph or two, but you should at least be aware their work is out there…in more ways than one. The current Hameroff interview is conducted by Jill Neimark, who is sort of a Larry King of scientist interviews archived on the Metanexus site metalibrary (just click on “interviews”). The archived interviews and words of many leading scientists at this site are a valid resource and starting point for many different topics whether or not the religious conclusions presented are in line with your own personal beliefs.

And if quantum consciousness seems a little far fetched, there’s plenty of other little discoveries waiting to be made down at the Planck scale…