Even Biology's Smallest Scale Sits Above the Quantum Realm

Two decades ago, scientists seemed on the verge of understanding biology in a new, quantum way. Life spans a staggering range of scales, from a planet-enveloping biosphere down to the individual biomolecules that build cells. But even at its most microscopic, biology does not really reach the quantum realm, where particles behave like waves. That gap is the whole point: the smallest units biologists handle are still biological molecules, sitting one level above the strange physics that made the earlier enthusiasm possible. Being at the bottom of biology's ladder is not the same as being at the bottom of physics's.