Edinburgh Napier University

  We present evidence based theory for the emergence of plant structure in which CO2 is not only the source of carbon for plant growth, but also plays a critical role as a source of charge (ionization), with charge density dictating plant structures at a wide range of scales. As levels of charge density increase beyond a critical point, dissipative systems lead to the emergence of macroscopic quantum processes analogous with high temperature super conductivity and coherent random lasing. The assembly of molecules into larger, ordered structures operates within charge-induced coherent bosonic fields acting as a structuring force in competition with exterior potentials. Within these processes many of the phenomena associated with standard quantum theory are recovered, including quantization, non-dissipation, self-organization, confinement, structuration conditioned by the environment, environmental fluctuations leading to macroscopic quantum decoherence and evolutionary time described by a time dependent Schrödinger-like equation, which describes models of bifurcation and duplication. The work provides a strong case for the existence of quintessence-like behaviour, with macroscopic quantum potentials and associated forces having their equivalence in standard quantum mechanics and gravitational forces in general relativity. The theory offers new insight into evolutionary processes in structural biology, with selection at any point in time, being made from a wide range of spontaneously emerging potential structures (dependent on conditions), which offer advantage for a specific organism. This is valid for both the emergence of structures from a prebiotic medium and the wide range of different plant structures we see today.