The measurement problem in biology

Abstract

The irradiation of enzymic substrates with visible light (λ = 546 nm) induces and enhancement of enzyme activities. This effect is obtained periodically at fixed substrate irradiation times that appear to be multiples of 5 sec. The minimum substrate irradiation time tt that induces an effect in the reaction as well as the fixed time interval τ that delimits two consecutive effects are enzyme dependent. The concept of a biological observable, linked with this new property of enzyme molecutes, is advanced. The detection of physical transitions induced in organic molecules by an electromagnetic field through enzymic reactions may be considered as a biological type of spectroscopy.