Your cells’ tiny power stations may be doing something quantum: scientists find a mysterious vibration that could influence how the body produces energy

Every cell in the human body depends on microscopic structures called mitochondria to keep its machinery running. Often described as the cell's powerhouses, mitochondria convert energy from food into ATP, the molecule that fuels many essential cellular processes.

Exactly how these structures achieve such efficient energy conversion is still an active area of research.

Now, a team of researchers in China has reported an unusual vibration inside mitochondria that may point to a previously unrecognised quantum process involved in cellular energy production.


Also Read | This strange world has no star to orbit, yet James Webb has revealed its changing weather from 20 light-years away

The researchers detected a signal at 71 terahertz, meaning the vibration oscillates 71 trillion times every second. The signal appeared in living human cells, mouse tissues and isolated mitochondria, but disappeared when the biological samples were dried and their structures disrupted.

The team then exposed cells to carefully selected infrared frequencies. ATP production increased by about 10% when the cells were exposed to frequencies associated with the proposed mitochondrial interaction.

The findings, published as a bioRxiv preprint, have not yet undergone peer review. The researchers say their observations are consistent with a quantum model involving interactions between light and molecular vibrations, but the proposed mechanism still needs to be independently tested.

A vibration hidden inside the cell's powerhouses

The unusual signal emerged when researchers examined mitochondria using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, a technique that reveals how molecules and biological structures respond to different frequencies of infrared radiation.

The team studied a human cell line along with tissue samples from mouse kidneys, livers, hearts and skeletal muscles. Across these different samples, the same 71-terahertz feature appeared.

Also Read | 55 million light-years away, scientists spot something unusual: A strange galactic collision may have left this spiral galaxy with a centre that spins sideways

That consistency caught the researchers' attention.

The signal was no longer present after the samples had been dried and ground. Destroying the organized biological structures therefore appeared to remove the feature, suggesting that the vibration was connected to the intact architecture of the mitochondria rather than simply being an isolated molecular signature.

The researchers then examined the mitochondria's inner membranes, known as cristae. These highly folded structures contain large amounts of lipids, including molecules with carbon-hydrogen bonds.

Those CH2 bonds have their own characteristic vibration at around 87 terahertz.

That left researchers with an interesting mismatch: why was the observed signal around 71 terahertz rather than 87 terahertz?

Their proposed explanation involves quantum physics.

The quantum explanation comes from light and matter interacting

The researchers' model suggests that the molecular vibrations inside mitochondrial membranes may interact with confined light.

Under this interpretation, photons and collective molecular vibrations can become coupled, producing a hybrid quantum state known as a polariton. Such a state combines characteristics of electromagnetic radiation and matter.

The model predicts that the original 87-terahertz molecular vibration could split into two new energy levels, one near 71 terahertz and another around 103 terahertz.

The lower predicted frequency corresponds closely to the unexplained signal observed in the biological samples.

The researchers suggest that mitochondria could provide a microscopic environment in which this interaction becomes possible. Their calculations indicate that the dimensions of active mitochondria are comparable to the wavelength of 87-terahertz light within the structure.

That raises the possibility that the folded mitochondrial membranes could act somewhat like microscopic optical chambers, allowing light and molecular vibrations to interact.

There is an important caveat, however.

The researchers have not directly observed a polariton inside a living mitochondrion. The proposed quantum state is inferred from the measured spectral signal and the way it corresponds to their theoretical model.

Other explanations still need to be ruled out.

Infrared light increased ATP production by about 10%

The team next wanted to know whether the unusual frequencies had any measurable effect on cellular energy production.

They exposed living cells to weak mid-infrared light for 10 minutes.

Two frequencies were tested. One was approximately 71 terahertz, matching the mysterious signal. The other was around 87 terahertz, corresponding to the CH2 vibration proposed as part of the underlying mechanism.

The results were similar.

Cells exposed to 71-terahertz light showed an approximately 10.3% increase in ATP production. Exposure to 87-terahertz light produced an increase of around 10.1%.

A control frequency that was not associated with the proposed mitochondrial vibrations did not produce a significant change.

That result suggests the effect was not simply caused by exposing the cells to infrared light. The response appeared to depend on the particular frequency used.

The researchers believe the proposed mitochondrial quantum state could influence processes involved in energy metabolism.

One possibility involves the tricarboxylic acid cycle, or TCA cycle, a series of reactions inside mitochondria that helps generate the reducing power needed for ATP production.

The team's earlier theoretical work proposed that chemical reactions involving NAD+ during this cycle could generate photons around 87 terahertz.

The researchers now speculate that interactions involving those vibrations and photons might influence the efficiency of the energy-producing pathway.

That connection remains theoretical.

The quantum claim still needs much more testing

The results are intriguing, but they do not yet establish that mitochondria use quantum physics to control energy production.

The study is currently available as a preprint, meaning it has not gone through the peer-review process normally used to scrutinize scientific research before publication in a journal.

There are several questions researchers will need to address.

First, the 71-terahertz feature needs to be independently reproduced. Other laboratories will need to determine whether they observe the same signal under comparable conditions.

Second, researchers need to establish whether the signal is genuinely produced by the proposed quantum interaction rather than by another molecular or structural effect.

The ATP experiment also has limitations. It involved a single cultured human cell line, with eight samples in each experimental group. Results from cultured cells cannot automatically be extended to whole animals, much less to human metabolism.

Heating and other effects of infrared illumination also need to be carefully excluded, although the researchers used a control frequency that did not significantly alter ATP production.

The team itself identifies another important gap: the dynamics of energy transfer associated with the proposed 87-terahertz interaction have not yet been measured directly.

That experiment could provide a much stronger test of the model.

For now, the research offers an unusual possibility rather than a settled explanation. Mitochondria are already extraordinarily sophisticated molecular machines, and the new findings raise the question of whether their tightly organized membranes could also support physical interactions that cannot be fully described by conventional biochemistry alone.

If future experiments confirm the signal and demonstrate the proposed quantum behaviour directly, it could open another line of research into how cells manage energy at extremely small scales.

For now, however, the most important result may be the mystery itself: researchers have found a persistent high-frequency signal in intact mitochondria, and they have yet to establish exactly what produces it.

FAQ

1. What did scientists discover inside mitochondria?
Researchers detected an unusual signal at about 71 terahertz in living cells, mouse tissues and isolated mitochondria. The signal disappeared when the biological structures were destroyed.

2. Why do scientists think the signal could be quantum?
Their model suggests that molecular vibrations around 87 terahertz could interact with light and form a hybrid quantum state called a polariton. This could produce a lower energy level close to the observed 71-terahertz signal. The proposed state has not yet been directly observed.

3. Did infrared light increase ATP production?
Yes. In the reported cell experiments, 71-terahertz infrared light increased ATP production by about 10.3%, while 87-terahertz light produced an increase of approximately 10.1%. A control frequency did not cause a significant increase.

4. Has it been proven that mitochondria use quantum physics to make energy?
No. The research is a preprint and has not yet been peer-reviewed. The quantum explanation is based on a model that fits the observations, and further experiments are needed to determine whether the proposed mechanism is actually occurring inside mitochondria.