Electric Waves in Living Matter

Up to now, different kinds of evidence can be quoted, which support the Frohlich proposal of electric waves in living matter. First of all, we mention those resonance experiments where external electromagnetic waves of selected frequencies interact with biological targets inducing macroscopic nonthermal consequences. There is a growing literature about microwave interaction with different types of cells. It has been observed that at given frequencies the effects occur only when a threshold is overcome and are independent from different intensities of irradiation. 

Further evidence for coherent electric waves comes from Raman experiments on living cells. These experiments show a time-dependent pattern of lines in IR and IR regions. The connections between Raman spectroscopic data and the underlying (spatial and temporal) order in living matter is discussed elsewhere. 

A different kind of support for Frohlich ideas has been brought by experiments on rouleaux formation in erythrocyte suspensions/ These experiments show that selective long-range interactions appear among metabolically active red blood cells. The connection between the experimental outcome and Frohlich theory has been recently discussed. 

In conclusion, phenomenological evidence supports the main elements of our QFT approach. We feel that the task of getting a satisfactory dynamical description of living systems is not out of reach. 

Frohlich, The Biological Effects of Microwaves and Related Questions, Adv. Electron. Electron Phys. 53, 85-152 (1980) H. Frohlich, Long-Range Coherence in Biological Systems, Riv. Nuovo Cimento 7, 399-418 (1977). 

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