Entangled biology (Image: Gustaf Brundin/iStock)

THE most celebrated molecule in biology – the DNA double helix – might owe its shape to a mysterious quantum property called entanglement.

In recent years, animals have been shown to use quantum processes to their advantage. For example, some birds’ eyes use quantum trickery to “see” the Earth’s magnetic field, and light-harvesting molecules in algae and bacteria rely on quantum processes to transfer energy efficiently. Now it seems the blueprint of life could also owe its functioning to such phenomena.

DNA consists of two strands, each made of a chain of nucleotides, or bases. The bases …