BIOPHOTONS Biophotons
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BIOPHOTONS Biophotons edited by Jiin-Ju Chang Institute o/Biophysics, Chinese Academy o/Sciences, Beijing, China International Institute 0/ Biophysics, Hombroich, Germany Joachim Fisch Institute 0/ Optical Devices, Technical University Ilmenau, Germany and Fritz-Albert Popp International Institute 0/ Biophysics, Hombroich, Germany SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-90-481-5033-5 ISBN 978-94-017-0928-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-0928-6 Printed on acid-free paper AH Rights Reserved © 1998 Springer Science+-Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1998 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be repfoduced Of utilized in any fonn Of by any means, electronic Of mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, without written pennission from the copyright owner. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction xi Photophysical reactions in cells G. Renger ............................................................................................................. Weak light emission from bacteria and their interaction with culture media R. Vogel and R. SiiBmuth .................................................................................... .. 19 Biophotons and defense response in plants M. Hiramatsu ...................................................................................................... .. 45 Experimental examination on the possible optical interaction between two separate cell populations L. Bei, T.-H. Hu and X. Shen ................................................................................ 57 Luminometry in cellular stress research J.E.M. Souren and R. van Wijk ............................................................................ 65 UV-induced DNA damage and repair: A powerful light trapping system in DNA in order to convert light energy into biochemical signals H.J. Niggli ............................................................................................................ 79 The photon count statistic study on the photon emission from biological systems using a new coincidence counting system F.A. Popp and X. Shen ........................................................................................ .. 87 Weak photon emission ofnon-linear chemical reactions ofamino acids and sugars in aqueous solutions V.L. Voeikov and V.1. Naletov 93 Coherence and biophoton emission as investigated on Acetabularia Acetabulum F. Musumeci, A. Scordino and A. TrigJia ............................................................ 109 Biophoton emission from developing eggs and embryos: Non-linearity, wholistic properties and indications of energy transfer L.V. Beloussov and N.N. Louchinskaia .............................................................. .. 121 Measuring weak light signals not far from the noise level W. Heering .......................................................................................................... .. 143 Measurement oflow-level emission under lab conditions D. Gall, 1. Fisch, R. Nolte and A. Walkling ........................................................ .. 159 VI Whole-body counting ofbiophotons and its relation to biological rhythms S. Cohen and F.A. Popp ........................................................................................ 183 Fluorescence imaging technique for detection ofhuman melanoma B.W. Chwirot, S. Chwirot, K S£owikowska, J. Redziiiski, 1. Tazbir, J. Sir, J. Nussbeutel and M. Gradziel .................................................................... 193 Electro-luminescence and its application J.J. Chang and F.A. Popp ...................................................................................... 201 Biological organization: a possible mechanism based on the coherence of "biophotons" J.J. Chang and F.A. Popp ...................................................................................... 217 Do we always need to know molecular origin oflight emitted by living systems? B.W. Chwirot ........................................................................................................ 229 The physical background and the informational character of biophoton emission F.A. Popp and J.J. Chang ...................................................................................... 239 Photon emission ofcereal seeds, "biophotons" as a measure of germinative ability and vigour B.F.Zeiger ............................................................................................................ 251 Biophotons and nonclassical light Q. Gu ..................................................................................................................... 299 Coherent nature of biophotons: experimental evidence and phenomenological model R.P. Bajpai ............................................................................................................ 323 Quantum coherence and the understanding oflife GJ. Hyland ........................................................................................................... 341 The concepts ofcoherence and "binding problem" as applied to life and consciousness realms M. Lipkind ............................................................................................................ 359 Holism andfield theories in biology M. Bischof ............................................................................................................. 375 Coherence in art and in the physical basis ofconsciousness F. Frohlich ............................................................................................................. 395 VII Author Index 405 Subject Index 407 PREFACE From June 19 to 25, 1997, twenty-two scientists of eleven nations met at the Technical Universitlit Ilmenau, and the International Institute of Biophysics (Neuss, Germany), in order to present and to discuss the most recent results in the interdisciplinary field of 'biophoton research' and 'biophotonics'. Up to now this meeting was the most frequented conference on this topic, impressively showing the increasing importance of this research, which concerns an extremely weak but permanent photon emission from biological systems. This photon flux of up to several hundreds of photons per second and per square centimeter surface area of the living system, continously covering the spectral range from at least 260 to 800 nm, is neither heat radiation (which, in the infrared region, roughly follows the Boltzmann distribution) nor ordinary "bioluminescence" which is assigned to photochemical reactions in a few species like deep-sea fish and fireflies. Rather, the term "biophotons" refers to the phenomenon of single photons indicating their classification in terms of quantum optics as well as to the biological origin of the light source. It seems that this term is now becoming common after periods of rather confusing terms, ranging from 'mitogenetic radiation' to 'dark luminescence', 'ultraweak photon emission', 'low level luminescence', 'chemiluminescence', 'bioluminescence'. Reflecting the nature of this phenomenon -the discovery of which can be traced back to the Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch in 1923 - the research requires interdisciplinary cooperation, covering fields like quantum optics, biochemistry, molecular biology and engineering. Thus, international participation and widely distributed interdisciplinary scientific contributions characterize the topics and the discussion of this conference at Ilmenau and Hombroich. Most of the outstanding scientists working in this field presented new and exciting experimental results on photon emission as well as on non-linear absorption of weak light intensities, attempting to find a common frame of understanding biophoton emission in its basic nature. Profound discussions are devoted to the probable light source(s) within the cells, the possible coherence of the radiation field within the body, the connection to non classical (squeezed) light, the interaction of biophotons and biomolecules including metabolic events, species-specific effects as well as the interference with basic biological functions like defense mechanisms against parasites, immunological and repair activities. At this conference evidence of non-substantial biocommunication was presented for the first time as well as whole-body photon counting which reveals biological rhythms indicating their real origin in the biophoton field. Further topics treated are the common nature of "delayed luminescence" (d.i.) and biophoton emission (bpe), where d.l. refers to a long-time light rescattering after exposure of the biological system to external light, then flowing smoothly down to the quasi-stationary bpe. Evidence is shown that both effects are linked. Besides problems of basic research on this field, various applications like germination capacity, correlations of light reflection to malignant cell growth, new optical tracer techniques in molecular biology have been presented and discussed at this conference. In view of the rather complicated but rapidly developing technique of measuring single light quanta in the optical range, some experimental as well as theoretical papers have been devoted to the questions of the sensitivity of optical detectors and signal/noise-ratio at the limit of single-photon counting. The spectrum of topics ranges from technical questions about basic scientific IX x documentations to