Radical-ion pair reactions play a fundamental role in photosynthesis and are also understood to underlie the avian magnetic compass mechanism. It was recently shown that these biochemical reactions exhibit a host of quantum coherence phenomena, thus providing a promising and very exciting link between biological systems and quantum information science. We will review the recent progress in understanding the fundamental quantum dynamics of radical-ion-pair reactions and elaborate on the possible repercussions of the new theoretical framework for the field of spin chemistry.