Homepage for the International Developments in Biophotonics

Biophotons are quanta which are permanently emitted from biological systems "far away from thermal equilibrium".
At about 1923 the Russian embryologist Alexander Gurwitsch discovered an "ultraweak" photon emission from living tissues in the UV-range of the spectrum. He called them "mitogenetic rays" in order to express their stimulating effect on cell division rate. After further scientists had been able to confirm his discovery, the University professor who has studied in Germany and was a well known and reputed scientist failed in getting the Nobel prize by missing only one vote. However, upcoming biochemistry and the fact that cell growth can be generally stimulated by radiation and, even more effectively, by hormones, evoked slowly scepticism about Gurwitsch´s discovery which got then more and more subject of discrimination. During the second world war the mitogenetic radiation was forgotten, despite of that further Russian and Eastern European scientists continued to show evidence of a few emitted photons per second and per square centimeter from all living systems. After world war II from 1955 on also some Western scientists like Colli (Italy), Quickenden (Australia), Inaba (Japan) started to rediscover "mitogenetic radiation", but called it now "dark luminescence", "low level luminescence", "ultraweak bioluminescence", or "ultraweak chemiluminescence" The hypothesis of that time was the statement that this phenomenon originates from rather rare oxidation processes and radical reactions.
Around 1970 the then assistant professor Fritz-Albert Popp at the University Marburg (Germany) suggested after studies on chemically inert carcinogenic compounds that electronic states around 380 nm are involved in the mechanism of carcinogenic reactivity. He and his group were searching for a corresponding radiation in living systems, and with their most sensitive photon counting system they were successful in (a) showing again evidence of ultraweak photon emission from living tissues, (b) revealing the spectral intensity over 200 to 800 nm, (c) showing significant correlations between biological and physiological functions and this "low level luminescence" and (d) showing evidence of non-thermal character and of coherence of this radiation. In order to point to the quantum nature of the phenomenon and at the same time to distinguish it from common bioluminescence, Popp called this radiation "biophotons". This term has been overtaken by several scientific groups in Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Southern Korea and USA. An international group of lifescientists of different disciplines was founded and established in an International Institute in Neuss (IIB,Germany). Around 1990 the IIB introduced the term "Biophotonics" for the science, research and applications of photons in their interactions within and on biological systems. This terms has been overtaken by the American National Science Foundation and established and developed in the mean time to one of the most forward looking fields of modern science and technology. Topics of research are besides of basic questions of biophysics and related subjects questions of basic regulation of biological functions, cell growth and differentiation, connections to delayed luminescence, coherence in biology and supermolecular processes in living tissues.

Some references:
Ruth,B. and F.A.Popp: Experimentelle Untersuchungen zur ultraschwachen Photonenemission biologischer Systeme. Z.Naturforsch.31
Ruth, B. In: Electromagnetic Bio-Information (F.A.Popp, G.Becker, H.L.König and W.Peschka, eds.), Urban &Schwarzenberg, München-Wien-Baltimore 1979. This paper contains the historical background of biophotons.
Popp, F.A.: Biophotonen. Ein neuer Weg zur Lösung des Krebsproblems. Schriftenreihe Krebsgeschehen, Vol.6, Verlag für Medizin, Dr.Ewald Fischer,Heidelberg 1976.
Popp,F.A., Ruth,B., Bahr,W., Böhm,J., Grass,P., Grolig,G., Rattemeyer,M., Schmidt,H.G., and Wulle,P.:Emission of visible and ultraviolet radiation by active biological systems. Collective Phenomena (Gordon&Breach), Vol.3 (1981), pp.187-214.
Rattemeyer, M., Popp,F.A., and Nagl,W.: Evidence of photon emission from DNA in living systems. Naturwissenschaften 68 (1981), 572-573.
Popp,F.A., Gurwitsch,A.A., Inaba, H., Slawinski, J., Cilento G., van Wijk, R., Chwirot B., and Nagl,W.: Biophoton Emission (Multi-Author Review), Experientia 44 (1988), 543-600.
Popp,F.A., Gu,Q., and Li, K.H.:Biophoton Emission: Experimentell Background and Theoretical Approaches. Modern Physics Letters B8 (1994), 1269-1296.
Chang, J.J., Fisch, J., and Popp,F.A.:Biophotons. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht-Boston-London 1998.
Bajpai, R.P., Popp,F.A., van Wijk, R., Niggli,H., Beloussov, L.V., Cohen,S., Jung, H.H., Sup-Soh, K., Lipkind, M., Voiekov, V.L., Slawinski, J., Aoshima, Y., Michiniewicz, Z., van Klitzing,L., Swain,J.:Biophotons (Multi-Author-Review). Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 41 (2003), Vol 5, 391-544.
Popp,F.A., Yan,Yu: Delayed luminescence of biological systems in terms of coherent states. Physics Letters A 293 (2002), 93-97.
Yan, Y., Popp,F.A., Sigrist,S., Schlesinger,D., Dolf,A., Yan,Z., Cohen,S., and Chotia, A.:Further analysis of delayed luminescence of plants, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology 78 (2005),229-234.
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Biophotonics is the science and technology of the interaction of photons within and on biological systems.

The term was first used and introduced about 1990 by L.V.Beloussov (Chair of embryology, Moscow State University, grandson of Alexander Gurwitsch) and F.A.Popp (see biophotons). Of basic importance is the analysis of biophoton emission and luminescence, in particular delayed luminescence. Fundamental knowledge and application of photobiology, photobiophysics and photochemistry, including quantum optics and the techniques of optical engineering belong to the instruments of this interdisciplinary direction of science.
There are two renowned groups of many years standing experience, e.g. the International Institute of Biophysics (IIB) and the American National Science Foundation which took up this term Biophotonics at about 1995 in just the same sense. Biophotonics developed to one of the most fashionable interdisciplinary approach to all topics of lifesciences. There are already a lot of applications and a rapid integration in medicine, food science, environmental protection, and optical engineering.

Some References.

Popp, F.A., Li, K.H. and Gu,Q. (eds.): Recent Advances in Biophoton Research and Its Applications. World Scientific, Singapore 1992.
Beloussov, L.V. and Popp,F.A. (eds.):Biophotonics. Moscow State Univesity 1994, Bioinform-Services, Russia 1995.
Cohen, S., and Popp,F.A.:Low-level luminescence of the human skin. Skin Research and Technology 3 (1997), 177-180.
Beloussov, L.V., Popp,F.A., Voiekov, V., and van Wijk, R.:Biophotonics and Coherent Systems. Moscow University Press, Moscow 2000.
Popp,F.A. and Beloussov, L.(eds.): Biophotonics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht-Boston-London 2003.
Prasad, P.N.: Introduction to Biophotonics. Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey 2003.
Van Wijk, R. and Shen,X. (eds.):Biophotonics, Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 2005.
www.lifescientists.de