Mae-Wan Ho

Mae-Wan Ho
Born	12 November 1941
Died	24 March 2016
Nationality	Chinese, British
Education	B.S. in Biology and Chemistry (1964) Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1967) University of Hong Kong
Occupation	Researcher
Known for	Liquid crystalline organism theory, critical views on genetic engineering and evolution, challenged mechanistic views of biology and extended the quantum biology tradition
Notable works	The Rainbow and the Worm, the Physics of Organisms (1993) Living Rainbow H2O (2012)
Website	https://www.i-sis.org.uk/Mae-WanHo.php

Early life

Mae-Wan Ho was born on November 12, 1941, in Hong Kong to a middle-class family. Growing up on Hong Kong Island during the post-war era, she developed a love for nature, often climbing trees and exploring the outdoors. Fluent in multiple languages from a young age, she showed early academic promise at a convent school, and this blend of curiosity and independence shaped her lifelong quest for deeper truths about life, influenced by a rejection of rigid dogma. The turbulent socio-political climate of colonial Hong Kong, including exposure to Western science and Eastern philosophy, further fueled her holistic worldview.

Education and career

Ho earned her B.Sc. (First Class Honours) in Biology and Chemistry in 1964 and Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1967 from the University of Hong Kong. She conducted postdoctoral research on inherited glycolipid diseases at the Neurosciences Department, University of California, San Diego (1968–1972), supported by a National Genetics Foundation Fellowship. In 1972, she moved to the UK as a Senior Research Fellow at Queen Elizabeth College, London (1974–1977). She then joined the Open University as Lecturer in Genetics (1976–1985) and Reader in Biology (1985–2000), where she taught and researched for 25 years before retiring over disagreements on GMOs. Post-retirement, she served as Visiting Professor of Biophysics at Catania University, Sicily. In 1999, she co-founded the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) with her husband, physicist Peter Saunders, directing it until her death and editing its quarterly magazine. She advised governments, NGOs, and international agencies on GMOs, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energies, while curating art/science festivals like "Colours of Water" (2013).

Notable/unique

Liquid crystalline organism theory

Her defining contribution was demonstrating that living organisms possess a liquid crystalline structure. She did a number of experiments using a type of microscope that's generally used in geology—it basically uses polarized light and allows you to look at the structure of crystals and rocks. But she found that small organisms had the same sort of crystalline structure in a liquid form.

"That image of the worm really is one of the most important things that people should start thinking about." - Ray Peat

This work resulted in striking photographs showing color continuity right through a whole organism, demonstrating that light has to be organized by the organism as a whole, not by individual random atoms. When people are shown those photos, they almost immediately think there's more to the picture than the materialist science we've been sold.

The Rainbow and the Worm

She wrote the book The Rainbow and the Worm, which presented her findings on quantum biology and organismal coherence. Ray Peat described it as supporting "the coherence thing is where I've been going since the '60s." He considered her an ally in his fight against mainstream science.

Intellectual lineage

Peat placed her work in a specific tradition: "The quantum biology, I think Albert Szent-Györgyi actually was the one that motivated people to start going in the direction of electronic biology and a coherent view of the cell. Mae-Wan Ho is to a great degree an extension of some of Albert Szent-Györgyi's ideas."

Critique of Neo-Darwinism and GMOs

Her liquid crystal findings also connected with criticisms against neo-Darwinism—if the organism is not fundamentally so mechanistic and much more fluidic and subtle, then it would support theories more in line with Sidney Fox and others.

She was probably best known publicly for being most controversial on GMOs, though her quantum biology work was her deeper scientific contribution.

ISIS (Institute of Science in Society)

She founded the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), a website where she wrote about the coherence of organisms involving quantum-level organization of water molecules.

Death

Mae-Wan Ho died of cancer on March 24, 2016, at age 74 in London, UK, after a brave battle with the disease. Her illness led ISIS to announce termination of activities in February 2016. Memorial lectures were held in 2017 to honor her legacy. She is survived by her husband, Peter Saunders, and leaves a profound impact on holistic science and environmental activism.

Published works

• "Beyond Neo-Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm" (1984)
• "Evolutionary Processes and Metaphors" (1988)
• "The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms" (1993)
• "Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare?" (1997)
• "Living with the Fluid Genome" (2003)
• "Food Futures: Now, Organic, Sustainable, Fossil Fuel Free" (2008)
• "Green Energies: 100% Renewables by 2050" (2009)
• "Living Rainbow H₂O" (2012)
• "Meaning of Life and the Universe: Transforming" (2016)