Understanding Digital Biology

By Jacques Benveniste, M.D.

In an attempt to explain digital biology, it is impossible without explaining its principle. The purpose of this text is not to report experimental results. Rather, it tries to explain to laymen, in the simplest terms, this radically new approach to biology. We hope it will be useful to all, scientists or not, who find it hard to "make the leap". Indeed, is it possible to believe that the specific activity of biologically-active molecules (e.g. histamine, caffeine, nicotine, adrenalin), not to mention the immunological signature of a virus or bacterium can be recorded and digitized using a computer sound card, just like an ordinary sound? Imagine the perplexity of Archimedes confronted with a telephone, and being told that by using it he could be heard on the other side of the world, were we not to explain the nature of sound waves or their translation into electromagnetism.

Life depends on signals exchanged among molecules (Biophotons). For example, when you get angry, adrenalin "tells" its receptor, and it alone (as a faithful molecule, it talks to no other) to make your heart beat faster, to contract superficial blood vessels, etc. In biology, the words "molecular signal" is used very often. Yet, if you ask even the most eminent biologists what the physical nature of this signal is, they do not understand the question.

The electromagnetic nature of the molecular signal sheds light on many shadowy areas of biology. We can now understand how millions of biological molecules can communicate (at the speed of light), each with its own corresponding molecule and it alone, the basic requirement for the functioning of biological systems...and why minute chemical modifications produce considerable functional consequences, something "structural" biologists are at a loss to explain.