Scientists are investigating whether life might exhibit behaviors that resemble quantum mechanics, even though living systems are typically warm, wet, and classical. Quantum mechanics describes the strange behavior of particles at the smallest scales, where particles can be in multiple states at once and influence each other over distances. In photosynthesis, for example, organisms capture light with near-perfect efficiency, converting almost every photon into usable energy. In 2007, scientists discovered that this efficiency might be due to a quantum phenomenon called coherence. This finding reignited interest in the idea that life might somehow harness quantum effects, despite the apparent incompatibility of such delicate quantum states with the chaotic environment of a living cell. Gregory Scholes, a chemist at Princeton University, was initially excited about these findings. He and his colleagues conducted further experiments and found similar results. However, Scholes has since become skeptical that quantum effects are essential to life. Instead, he suggests that life might be mimicking quantum behavior rather than using it. In recent years, Scholes and his team have shown that complex networks of classical objects—like the proteins and pigments in photosynthesis—can produce behaviors that look quantum from a mathematical standpoint. These are called "quantumlike" states, which arise when many interacting parts behave in a way that resembles quantum systems, even though they are not truly quantum. The idea that life might be connected to quantum mechanics is not new. In the 1920s and 1930s, scientists like Niels Bohr and Pascual Jordan speculated that quantum mechanics could help explain life’s mysteries. They suggested that life might amplify the strange quantum indeterminacy seen at the smallest scales to create complex behaviors at the macroscopic level. However, quantum states are fragile. Even a small amount of environmental noise can destroy them, causing them to collapse into classical behavior. In the warm, wet environment of a cell, quantum states should not survive long enough to influence biological processes. Despite this, some quantum effects do appear in biological systems. For example, certain enzymes use a process called quantum tunneling to speed up chemical reactions. However, this is not the same as the long-lived coherence that quantum biologists are searching for. Scholes argues that the key question is whether life can maintain quantum coherence long enough to use it as a resource. While early studies in the 2000s suggested that coherence might explain the efficiency of photosynthesis, further research revealed that the observed effects were due to classical resonances, not quantum coherence. This has left scientists searching for new ways to understand the potential links between life and quantum mechanics, with an increasing focus on how classical systems might mimic quantum behavior.