From THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOPHYSICS Here is some interesting information extracted from six of the Institute's Links below: 1. “At present...we feel that the purely molecular aspect of life sciences may be only one necessary step in understanding biology and can never reach the significance of sufficient and complete explanation. Molecules have no intelligence, despite the manifold impressive functions that have been assigned to the, e.g.., isomerase, synthetase, and a variety of other enzymatic or “informational” activities. Even enzymes or messenger molecules have to be triggered by external energy, i.e. photons which activate the diverse transition state complexes due to the characteristic eigenstates of translational, rotational, vibrational, and electronic energies. These activation energies cover the whole electromagnetic spectrum, from distance radiowaves, microwaves, infrared waves up to the visible and even ultraviolet photons. There is only one possible vehicle for conducting this concert of up to millions of reactions per second and per cell: non-thermal photons which provide the right quantum energies at the right place and at the right time…..”biophotons” - may well suffice to take the role of regulating the whole biochemistry and biology of life. The Spectral distribution of biophotons covers at least the range from 200 to 800 nm. It is evident that at least a significant part of biophoton emission originates from DNA. Some Features of Biophotons and their Interpretation in Terms of Coherent States by Fritz-Albert Popp, International Institute of Biophysics, http://lifefscientists.de/ib02005e_1htm 2. A proposal of Li and Popp claims that exciplex systems of biological systems are the molecular base of all life. Excited complexes are metastable states of two bound molecules. Exciplexs are formed by all base pairs of the DNA. The fundamental biological importance of the exciplex formation concerns their extraordinary capacity of establishing powerful photon traps. The network of photon traps in the biological system is the basic source of the communication system of the living system. By mutual absorption and emission of photons within this network, as well intracellular as intercellular communication takes place where the “sucking potentials” of the traps and the available light intensities are the decisive regulatory quantities of the three-dimensional channel system of the cells communication base. The exciplex states form photon traps as soon as they are excited by coherent radiation of suitable wavelengths. This mechanism provides the very basis of life since it opens an infinite play of competition for light with infinite possibilities of modulations in all frequency ranges lower than ionizing UV. This mechanism is universal in all living systems. Molecular Base of Life , Frits-Albert Popp, http://www.biophotonik-international.de/ publications/molelcular_base_of_lige.htm 3. In the last time we investigated the biophoton emissions and delayed luminescence of the human body after local treatment of the skin, i.e. rubbing ointment into the skin of a definite part of the right arm or exposing a definite part of the arm over some minutes to UV. To our surprise, the change of the bpe or/and dl after treatment did not only appear on the position of treatment, but there sere significant changes also on other places on the body. ….. This effects shows the first time a new communication channel in the human body on the basis of biophotons. It indicates that biophotonics provides a powerful tool for understanding health and disease in terms of intra– and also intercellular communication within the living system under investigation.” Nonlocal effects of biophoton emission from the human body. Sophie Cohen, Fritz-Albert Popp and Yu Yan http://lifescientists.de/publication/pub2003-04-1.htm 4. Abstracts from the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology http://lifescientists.de/ib0201e1.htm Preface R P Bajpai “The behavior of a large number of properties of living system has become comprehensible. However, there are a small number of properties whose behavior is incomprehensible; any attempt made to understand the behavior encounters insurmountable problems. The incomprehensible properties bring out the inadequacies of the existing paradigm and a need to go beyond the existing paradigm. ...the tenets of the existing paradigm involve the separate identity of biomolecules, local interaction of biomolecules, incoherent and random kinetics of chemical reactions, and information transfer via movement of biomolecules. These tenets provide only a fine-grained vision of living systems. The grain size used is of biomolecules, which is the most appropriate grain size. The choice of a finer or coarser grain size will miss some important aspects of living systems. However, the depth of vision is too small in the paradigm; it only sees the properties of microscopic class and misses the cause of correlations of distant biomolecules. It is a serious shortcoming of the existing paradigm…. ...The phenomenon is the incessant emission of photons by a living system mainly in the visible region and of ultra weak flux….the signals of these photons have been observed in living systems ranging from bacteria to human tissues. The signals have two characteristic features - non-exponential decay characters of signals and sensitivity of signals to all essential biological and physiological activities. Both features rule out a conventional mode of photon emission and have far reaching implications...If it is true for all macroscopic biological activities, then a biophoton signal contains decipherable and digitalized signatures of all macroscopic biological activities. ….. The word “biophotons” is used to denote a permanent spontaneous photon emission from all living systems. It displays a few up to some hundred photons /(s.cm2) within the spectral range from at least 260-800 nm. It is closely linked to delayed luminescence (DL) of biological tissues which describes the long term and ultra weak reemission of photons after exposure to light illumination. During relaxation DL turns continuously into the steady state biophoton emission, where both, DL and biophoton emission exhibit mode coupling over the entire spectrum…..Biological phenomena like intracellular and intercellular communication, cell growth and differentiation, interactions among biological systems and microbial infections can be understood in terms of biophotons. Biophoton emission of lichen species Parmelia tinactorum R P Bajpai The signal and its broad spectral components have similar excitation curves. The relative strength of spectral component appears independent of the stimulating wavelength. Biophoton emission of human body S Cohen & F A Popp For the first time systematic measurements of the “ultraweak” photon emission of the human body (biophotons) have been performed by means of a photon detector device set up in darkness. About 200 persons have been investigated. It turned out that this biophoton emission reflects : A. The left-right symmetry of the human body. B. Biological rhythms such as 14 days, 1 month, 3 months and 9 months. C. Disease in terms of broken symmetry between left and right side. D. Light channels in the body, which regulate energy and information transfer between different parts The results show that besides a deeper understanding of health, disease and body field, this method provides a new powerful tool of non-invasive medical diagnosis in terms of basic regulatory functions of the body Left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission from hemiparesis patients Hyun-Hee Jung, Won-Muyng Woo, Joon-Mo Yang, Chunho choi, Jonghan Lee, GilWon Yoon, Jong S. Yang, Sungmuk Lee & Kwang-Sup Soh “Acupuncture treatment reduces dramatically the left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission rates. Biophoton research in blood reveals its holistic properties V L Voeikov, R asfaramov, E V Bouravleva, C N Novikov & N D Villenskaya .”..blood is a continuous source of biophotons indicating that it persists in electronically excited state...Excited state of blood is extremely sensitive to the tiniest fluctuations of external photonic fields but resistant to temperature variations as reflected in hysteresis of PE in response to temperature variations. These data suggest that blood is a highly cooperative non-equilibrium and non-linear system, whose components unceasingly interact in time and space. From a practical point of view analysis of these qualities of blood may be a basement of new approach to diagnostic procedures.” Quantum coherence of biophotons and living systems R P Bajpai Coherence is a property of the description of the system in the classical framework in which the subunits of a system act in a cooperative manner. Coherence becomes classical if the agent causing cooperation is discernible otherwise it is quantum coherence. 5. Photon Sucking and the Basis of Biological Organization Fritz-Albert Popp and Jiin-Ju Chang http://lifescientists.de/ib0101e1.htm “The basic idea of understanding all these phenomena is the superposition of electromagnetic fields, in particular biophotons, in a way that during biologically relevant structures, interference patterns of destructive and constructive interference are built up that “organize” the movement and activity of the biomolecules within and between the cell populations…” The explanation of the biphoton field is based on dynamic interference patterns of a broad banded electromagnetic field covering the optical range.. ...cells or cellular systems organize their mutual distance and orientation by means of the interference pattern that is created after mutual emission and reemission of coherent biophotons. “Under these boundary conditions, the general “standing-wave” -solutions provide phase conjugates in terms of interference strings with destructive interference at the outside of the system and , as a consequence, constructive interference within the system.”.. This means, in addition, that this mechanism is able to serve as the ideal basis of a communication system between both biological systems and the outside world and between and even within living systems, where the receiver has simply to provide the boundary conditions in terms of shifting its double layers into one of the nodal planes of the incoming carrier waves while the language is free for expressing the total information by spatio-temporal modulations of the interference fringes .. It may represent an evolutionary principle of nature.” Sucking Force The mechanism under considerations describes the capacity of a system to use phase information in order to store and distribute energy. This process is not passive absorbance but an active process where energy is stored by constructive interference within the system against an energy gradient of removed energy at the outside. It is evident that this leads to a force which is defined by the gradient of stored to destructed energy between the inside and the outside. This force has the opposite direction to the force of the radiation pressure of the incoming wave like that of a vacuum cleaner which moves its sucking tube towards the incoming air flow instead of getting pushed away. “ “In addition we would like to say that it is very likely that the quantum description of photon sucking in biological systems requires squeezed states since the flexibility in tuning the uncertainties of amplitude and phase of the electromagnetic field is a most powerful instrument of biological organization and communication. This could also explain why biophoton emission is limited to weak intensities, since only a few photons in the field allow the perfect application of non-classical light for communication.” Summary ….This process of photon sucking involves a force which may well explain the cell-cell attraction and/or repulsion. At the same time some unknown phenomena of phototropism and similar effects including biological rhythms may find basic understanding, since the mechanism can work also in non-linear classical optics. The organization of cells (including growth, differentiation…) and the “language” may become understandable on this basis, too. This effect can play a role not only between cells and organisms, but also within cells and between groups of biomolecules. Specific phase– and frequency modulations may provide the language of the system under consideration.” 6. Biophysical Aspects of the Psychic Situation (1) Fritz-Albert Popp http:lifescientists.de/ib0203e_1.htm “Biological systems are governed by the special interaction of a coherent electromagnetic field (biophotons) and biological matter. There is a permanent feedback coupling between field and matter in a way that the field directs the location and activity of matter, while matter provides the boundary conditions of the field.. Since the field is almost fully coherent, the interference patterns of the field contain the necessary information about the regulatory function…. The dominating role of source and sink of the field is probably played by the DNA” (2) “..metabolic activity in animated matter is governed by biophotons since they (and only they) can be responsible for the triggering of all the necessary transition state complexes with activation energies in the optical range. Heat photons would never suffice to provide the necessary activation energy. Even enzymatic reactions cannot take place without this activation by suitable photons.” ...This does, by the way, not require extremely high photon numbers. Since after a small reaction time of about 10-9 seconds the activatinag photon is not thermalized but available for the next reaction (cilento, 1988),… This is not just a question of energy or photon number, but of the information that is necessary to distribute the available energy in the right way.” (4) “From the biophysical point of view biophotons are regulating the body in its rather complex functions. The interference pattern of biophotons originating from the resonance tuning between the coherent field and biological matter (preferentially DNA) governs the availability of energy in a concerted action of the whole. Consequently the organizational capacity is reflected by characteristics of biophoton emission. “These rules do hold not only for cell populations and organisms, but also for organs within a body and even for the development of consciousness.” “It is well known that the basic nutrition of living systems is light. Actually, plants take it up directly from the sun, while mammals absorb it by metabolic degradation of sugar that contains sunlight in the form of the binding energy of H2O and CO2. sugar is digested into water and carbon dioxide which both are excreted by breathing, respiration, sweating and urinating, while the stored sun energy becomes available for activation of biological functions. From the physical point of view this activity corresponds to a photon store which can always be characterized by its so-called resonator value Q.. Here is a list of their Internet Publications Photon Sucking and the Basis of Biological Organization; Fritz-Albert
Popp and Jiin-Ju Chang http://www.lifescientists.de/ib_003e_.htm
CONTENTS
ABSTRACTS Preface Many naturally occurring systems are endowed with a peculiar attribute called “life”. These systems are known as living or biological systems and are at the centre of all human cultures. The attribute “life” has been investigated with different perspectives and motivations for ages, but it has remained a riddle. It addresses some basic questions and fundamental problems. It is easy to perceive “life” and identify a living system but its scientific understanding is notoriously difficult and full of contradictions. The difficulty is linked with the inability to find an exclusive property of living systems that is law like related to all features of living systems arising from the attribute “life”. Crick and Watson took the first decisive step in the search of the exclusive property by discovering double helix structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) showing specific pairing of adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine between its two strands. They also realised that the specific pairing is indicative of a copying mechanism. It took another 13 years to decipher the genetic code employed in different steps of the copying mechanism. The copying mechanism altered the prevailing paradigm of Biology to a paradigm in which the essential ingredients of living systems are biomolecules and the working rule is the fundamental dogma of Biology. All biological properties originate at and are expressed by biomolecules. The new paradigm created a new scientific frontier of understanding and predicting the behaviour of living systems from a bio-molecular perspective. Rapid progress has been in this endeavour. The behaviour of a large number of properties of living system has become comprehensible. However, there are a small number of properties whose behaviour is incomprehensible; any attempt made to understand the behaviour encounters insurmountable problems. The incomprehensible properties bring out the inadequacies of the existing paradigm and a need to go beyond the existing paradigm. These properties are precursors of new inputs in the existing paradigm. The properties of living systems are operationally demarcated into three classes, microscopic, macroscopic, and consciousness, based on measurability and comprehensibility in the existing paradigm. The properties of microscopic class are comprehensible as well as measurable, the properties of macroscopic class are not comprehensible but measurable, and the properties of consciousness class are neither comprehensible nor measurable. The incomprehensibility of some properties arises because of the basic tenets of existing paradigm. The tenets are separate identity of biomolecules, local interaction of biomolecules, incoherent and random kinetics of chemical reactions, and information transfer via movement of biomolecules. These tenets provide only a fine-grained vision of living systems. The grain size used is of biomolecules, which is the most appropriate grain size. The choice of a finer or coarser grain size will miss some important aspects of living systems. However, the depth of vision is too small in the paradigm; it only sees the properties of microscopic class and misses the cause of correlations of distant biomolecules. It is a serious shortcoming of the existing paradigm. The effects of correlations are observable as efficiency and orders at macroscopic scales. The properties characterised by efficiency and orders at macroscopic scales belong to the macroscopic class. These are measurable properties and become comprehensible in the paradigm only after an assumption of co-operative and coordinated functioning of biomolecules that generates correlations. The assumption is usually made without any obvious reason. The assumption is attributed to some unknown peculiarity of living systems called coherence and the biomolecules involved in the cooperative functioning are called cohering. Coherence makes the cohering biomolecules behave like a macroscopic structure characterised by only a few holistic parameters. The number and behaviour of parameters depend upon the nature of the macroscopic structure that is either quantum or classical. The nature of macroscopic structure determines the nature of coherence, so that coherence is either quantum or classical. Quantum coherence is intrinsic to a system while classical coherence is a consequence of information and instruction transfers among biomolecules. Quantum coherence is associated with macroscopic quantum structures and one set of holistic parameters while classical coherence is associated with classical macroscopic structures and other set of holistic parameters. The holistic parameters are theory laden and indicate the existence of coherence but usually do not allow inferring its nature. A discriminatory property is the behaviour of correlations at small intervals. The correlation among distant molecules in a quantum structure exists at all times because of its intrinsic nature. In contrast, the correlation in a classical structure will be observable only after a time gap because of a finite speed of information transfer. Such experiments are difficult to perform and many measurements have not been made. Perhaps, because of it any serious effort has not been made to include the coherence in the biological paradigm and to study its consequences. The information about the properties of consciousness class is based on subjective and non-repeatable experiences of human objects. The nature of knowledge obtained through experiences is participatory and experiences of only a few persons have been subjected to a limited form of scientific investigation. As a result, these properties are considered immeasurable and incomprehensible. The existence of such properties in non-human living systems is matter of speculation. These properties appear counter-intuitive, illogical and non-local in the existing paradigm. A similar situation is also encountered in describing the effects of non-locality of quantum systems in a classical framework. It is reasonable to expect that similar problems in two situations arise from a common cause. Since quantum nature introduces non-locality in non-living systems, the cause of non-locality in living systems should be the quantum nature of macroscopic structures. An added bonus is that it will imply quantum nature of coherence. The phenomenon of biophoton emission addresses the basic problem of coherence and provides a means to study its consequences. The phenomenon is the incessant emission of photons by a living system mainly in the visible region and of ultra weak flux. A sensitive photo multiplier tube operating in the single photon detection mode is normally used in the detection of these photons. The signals of these photons have been observed in living systems ranging from bacteria to human tissues. The signals have two characteristic features — non-exponential decay characters of signals and sensitivity of signals to all essential biological and physiological activities. Both features rule out a conventional mode of photon emission and have far reaching implications. A prefix bio is added to the photons, photon signals, and photon emission to highlight the implications. The exponential decay character is a statistical result of emission from a large number of identical but independent units. Its absence in biophoton signals implies that biophoton-emitting units are correlated in a living system and biophoton emission is a manifestation of coherence. One can learn the properties and nature of coherence by studying biophoton signals. The implications of the sensitivity are also far reaching. The biological and physiological activities affecting biophotons signals belong to the macroscopic class. Further, the sensitivity is such that a biophoton signal appears to provide a faithful reflections of biological and physiological activities of the emitting system. If it is true for all macroscopic biological activities, then a biophoton signal contains decipherable and digitalised signatures of all macroscopic biological activities. The possibility has catalysed immense experimental activity of deciphering the signatures of individual biological activities and proving the uniqueness of signatures. The success of experiment activities depends upon the capability to identify the relevant parameters of biophoton signals so that the dependence of relevant parameters on physiological and environmental factors controlling biological activities can be measured. A theoretical model also specifies the relevant parameters and its formulation depends critically on the nature of coherence. In the absence of a consensus about the nature of coherence, the relevant parameters are inferred from model calculations as well as from the observed behaviour of biophoton signals. It is hoped that relevant parameters determined from the data and models will converge. The support for the quantum nature of coherence also comes from a theoretical conjecture providing a possible explanation of the basic facts of genetic code namely only four bases in nucleotides, a codon consisting of three nucleotides coding for amino acids, and only twenty amino acids. These facts emerge in a natural way if it is conjectured that the selection of a base pair or of an amino acid is accomplished by a quantum search. Such selections occur in fundamental biological processes of replication, transcription and protein synthesis. The conjecture implies that the nucleotide making quantum searches are in quantum states because only a quantum object can make a quantum search. It raises the question of the composite quantum state of a bunch of nucleotides; the composite will be either decoupled or entangled. A decoupled state retains the individual identities of nucleotides while an entangled state obliterates the identities. The two states will have some common and different properties. The existing paradigm explores decoupled states of nucleotides because of its narrow vision. The paradigm implicitly assumes only the existence of decoupled states of nucleotides and never considers the possibility of composite entangled states. As a result, the paradigm is unsuccessful in understanding the quantum coherence of nucleotides. An entangled state has both local and non-local features. The local features manifest in the properties of macroscopic class and non-local features in the properties of consciousness class. The conjecture is appealing and integrates the hitherto comprehensible and incomprehensible aspects of biological systems into a broad picture. The experimental vindication of the conjecture will come from the study of properties of photons, emitted or absorbed in transitions of quantum states. The transitions in different types of states occur in the manifestation of properties of different classes. The transitions of decoupled states will probably involve thermal photons while transitions of entangled states will involve coherent photons. Coherent photons may have some non-local affects. The phenomenon of biophoton emission is in accordance with the broad picture and can give credence to the broad picture by filling its missing details through the study of biophoton signals. Biophoton emission is thus seen as crucial evidence of a physical basis of “life”, which is the theme binding, a collage of articles of this issue. These articles cover almost all aspects of biophoton phenomenon and give status reports of the various attempts made for understanding the issues raised above. The attempts have differing perspectives, follow different paths, investigate different systems, and make different promises of potential applications. This is inevitable in a new and evolving discipline. Perhaps, all attempts have grains of truth and “life” like a quantum reality traverses all available paths at the same time. Properties of biophotons and their theoretical implications The word “biophotons” is used to denote a permanent spontaneous photon emission from all living systems. It displays a few up to some hundred photons /(s.cm2) within the spectral range from at least 260 to 800 nm. It is closely linked to delayed luminescence (DL) of biological tissues which describes the long term and ultra weak reemission of photons after exposure to light illumination. During relaxation DL turns continuously into the steady state biophoton emission, where both, DL and biophoton emission exhibit mode coupling over the entire spectrum and a Poissonian photo count distribution. DL is representing excited states of the biophoton field. The physical properties indicate that biophotons originate from fully coherent and sometimes even squeezed states. The physical analysis provides thermodynamic and quantum optical interpretation, in order to understand the biological impacts of biophotons. Biological phenomena like intracellular and intercellular communication, cell growth and differentiation, interactions among biological systems (like “Gestaltbildung” or swarming), and microbial infections can be understood in terms of biophotons. “Biophotonics”, the corresponding field of applications, provide a new powerful tool for assessing the quality of food (like freshness and shelf life), microbial infections, environmental influences and for substantiating medical diagnosis and therapy. Biophoton emission of a lichen species Parmelia tinctorum The properties of biophoton signals emitted by samples of lichen species P. tinctorum are investigated. The shape of a light induced signal is determined from 5ms onwards using successively the bin resolution of 1, 10 and 100 ms; 1000 measurements in successive bins are made at each resolution. The measurement of the shape is repeated at various temperatures in the range (1-40°C) in steps of 1°C. It is found that a biophoton signal is very sensitive to temperature and different portions of the signal show different sensitivity. The temperature dependence of the decaying part is even qualitatively different from that of the non-decaying part. The signal responds to temperature changes of 0.1°C in less than 1 ms. The effect of monochromatic stimulation on the strengths of the signal and its red, blue and green spectral components are determined in the wavelength range (400-700) nm in steps of 10nm. The signal and its broad spectral components have similar excitation curves. The relative strength of spectral component appears independent of the stimulating wavelength. The shape of the decaying portion of the signal and its red, blue and green components is also determined. The character of decay in all four cases is non-exponential. The measurements with various interference filters spanning the entire visible region are made with the bin size of 20s. These measurements are qualitative because of large fluctuations but suggest that the spectral components of a biophoton signal are distributed in the entire visible region. The probabilities of detecting different number of photons in the non-decaying portion are determined by making 30000 measurements in each set with the bin size of 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 700 ms. The probabilities determine the parameters of a squeezed state of light- the magnitude of its displacement parameter is different but the phase of its displacement parameter and its squeezing parameter are same for different sizes of a bin. These measurements further indicate that the average signal strength remains constant for 19 hr. Oscillations in ultraweak photon emission of Acetabularia
acetabulum (L.) Ultraweak photon emission of dark-incubated A. acetabulum cells were measured with the use of a sensitive electronphotomultiplier of the Hamamatsu 550 type. The photon count series were subjected to Fourier analysis for 2-1020 sec period range. The average level of photon emission in samples containing 50 cells was approximately 40% above background. Cell cultures were prepared at least 24 hr before the photon emission measurements and kept un-disturbed (“established cultures”). This paper reports results of Fourier analysis of a number of samples of Acetabularia cells. In a single population cells periodicity of light emission was not defined directly from Fourier transformation. A large number of analyses, however, if they are combined and compared with background data, reveal a cell-culture specific frequency pattern. The results suggest the idea that established cell-cultures are characterized by higher intensities of long period (minutes) oscillations occurs, while a relative decrease was observed in the short period (few seconds) range. The long period oscillations were not detected in cell cultures that were prepared within 1 hr before the photon emission measurements. It is concluded that Fourier analysis of ultraweak photon emission, even with relatively low signals, appears to be possible. It may serve as a non-invasive tool for monitoring the physiological state of cells, or for studying the control of intercellular dynamics. Temperature dependence of ultraweak photon emission
in fibroblastic differentiation after irradiation with artificial sunlight Yield of ultraweak photon emission in a cell culture model for biophotonic measurements using fibroblastic differentiation depended on the temperature of photonic measurement. The ultraweak photon emission of medium was significantly higher at 37°C than at 25°C and after UVB-irradiation this difference was even more pronounced. While with cells in the medium no temperature dependence could be determined in unirradiated samples, after UVB-irradiation of cells an increase of biophotonic emission was observed in postmitotic fibroblasts. While after several UVB exposures normal cells begin to absorb the ultraviolet light, cells from patients with the disease Xeroderma Pigmentosum loose this capacity. In view that fibroblasts play an essential role in skin aging, skin carcinogenesis and wound healing, the biophotonic model using the fibroblastic differentiation system provides to be a new and powerful non-invasive tool for the development of skin science. Biophotonic patterns of optical interactions between
fish eggs and embryos The optical (non-substantial) interactions between various biological samples have been evident in a number of cases mainly by the effects on their functional activity and developmental patterns. However, the mechanisms of these interactions have remained obscure. Effect of optical interaction has been observed on the intensity and Fourier patterns of biophoton emission of fish embryos. We demonstrate that: (1) the short-term optical interactions are accompanied by a gradual decrease of a total emission intensity of the interacting batches; (2) this effect is spread laterally to that part of a batch which does not have any direct optical contacts with its partner; and (3) the long-term optical contacts lead to a mutual exchange of spectral characteristics of interacting batches in which the total spectral density values are reversed (often with an overshoot). The reversal rate depends upon the developmental distance between the optical partners and the initial differences of their spectral characteristics. The results are discussed in terms of a sub-radiance and Le Chatelier principle. Solid state approach in biophoton research Main characteristics of the delayed luminescence (DL) emitted in the seconds range from biological systems is analyzed. The correlation between change in DL and cell’s organization, and similarity with some characteristics of DL from solid state system suggest to connect DL in biological system to decay of collective electron states formed during energy and charge transport along the macromolecular ordered structures which form the cell. Results of a proposed soliton model are discussed, together with some phenomenological evidence which emphasize the possibility of using DL measurements as an intrinsic probe in biophysical investigations. Biophoton emission of human body For the first time systematic measurements of the "ultraweak" photon emission of the human body (biophotons) have been performed by means of a photon detector device set up in darkness. About 200 persons have been investigated. In a particular case one person has been examined daily over several months. It turned out that this biophoton emission reflects, (i) the left-right symmetry of the human body; (ii) biological rhythms such as 14 days, 1 month, 3 months and 9 months; (iii) disease in terms of broken symmetry between left and right side; and (iv) light channels in the body, which regulate energy and information transfer between different parts. The results show that besides a deeper understanding of health, disease and body field, this method provides a new powerful tool of non-invasive medical diagnosis in terms of basic regulatory functions of the body. Photon counting statistics analysis of biophotons from
hands The photon counting statistics of biophotons emitted from hands is studied with a view to test its agreement with the Poisson distribution. The moments of observed probability up to seventh order have been evaluated. The moments of biophoton emission from hands are in good agreement while those of dark counts of photomultiplier tube show large deviations from the theoretical values of Poisson distribution. The present results are consistent with the conventional d-value analysis of the second moment of probability. Left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission from hemiparesis
patients Left-right biophoton asymmetry from the palm and the dorsum of hands from 7 Korean hemiparesis patients were studied. There is a strong tendency that the left-hemiparesis patients emit more biophotons from the right than the left hands, while the right-hemiparesis patient emits more from the left hand. Acupuncture treatment reduces dramatically the left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission rates. However there is no systematic difference for the patients in the emission rates from the palm and the dorsum of hands. Registration of spontaneous photon emission from virus-infected
cell cultures: Development of experimental system “Viruses are probes by which one can gain insight into cellular structure
and function”. Sir M.F. Burnet Biophoton research in blood reveals its holistic properties Monitoring of spontaneous and luminophore amplified photon emission (PE) from non-diluted human blood under resting conditions and artificially induced immune reaction revealed that blood is a continuous source of biophotons indicating that it persists in electronically excited state. This state is pumped through generation of electron excitation produced in reactive oxygen species (ROS) reactions. Excited state of blood and of neutrophil suspensions (primary sources of ROS in blood) is an oscillatory one suggesting of interaction between individual sources of electron excitation. Excited state of blood is extremely sensitive to the tiniest fluctuations of external photonic fields but resistant to temperature variations as reflected in hysteresis of PE in response to temperature variations. These data suggest that blood is a highly cooperative non-equilibrium and non-linear system, whose components unceasingly interact in time and space. At least in part this property is provided by the ability of blood to store energy of electron excitation that is produced in course of its own normal metabolism. From a practical point of view analysis of these qualities of blood may be a basement of new approach to diagnostic procedures. Biophotons from stressed and dying organisms: Toxicological
aspects Cells and organisms exposed to detrimental and toxic substances show different responses in photon emission dependent on amount, kind and exposure time of toxin as well as on the organism investigated. Radical reaction-generating substances and dehydrating, lipid dissolving and protein denaturating toxins which do not induce direct chemiluminescence resulting from reactive oxygen species were applied. Lethal doses of toxins and stress factors such as osmotics and temperature evoke increase in the intensity of photon emission resulting from a rapid and irreversible perturbation of homeostasis. Bacterial and fungal toxins that elicit hypersensitive death of plant cells or defense response correlated with photon emission are also briefly discussed. Collective molecular interactions contribute to the photon-generating degradative processes in stressed and dying organisms. The measurements of biophoton signals and analysis of their parameters are used to elucidate the possible mechanisms of the toxin-organism interaction and the resistance of organisms. Toxicological perspectives of the use of these sensitive and rapid measurements as a part of direct toxicity assessment are discussed. Endogenous enzyme reactions closely related to photon
emission in the plant defense response Lipoxygenase (LOX) and peroxidase (POD) reactions, which are involved in the production of reactive oxygen and radical species, are shown to be associated with ultraweak photon emission in plant defense mechanisms. These enzyme reactions induced high-level ultraweak photon emission in an in vitro reaction system. The application of LOX to sweet potato slices caused photon emission directly in plants. LOX substrate promoted photon emission in chitosan-treated sweet potato, and LOX inhibitor markedly suppressed this emission. Therefore, a LOX-related pathway, including LOX and other downstream reactions, is principally associated with photon emission in plant defense mechanisms. Variability of spectra of laser-induced fluorescence
of colonic mucosa: Its significance for fluorescence detection of colonic
neoplasia To determine the extent of a natural variability of the spectra of the autofluorescence and its significance for a reproducibility of different approaches typically used in studies on fluorescence detection of colonic lesions. Two independent series of experiments have been conducted during three years in the same laboratory. Macroscopic tissue specimens obtained during operations of patients with colonic cancers were studied in vitro. The tissues were excited using UV lines of c.w. He-Cd laser and pulsed nitrogen laser and the autofluorescence spectra were recorded for areas visually diagnosed as normal or pathologically changed mucosa. Natural variability of the autofluorescence spectra of colonic tissues seems to be most important factor limiting sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic algorithms. The mean fluorescence spectra obtained for normal mucosa and its neoplastic lesions differ significantly but the differences are difficult to observe because of the high natural variability among the individual spectra. Further studies of biological basis of the colonic autofluorescence are necessary for a progress in the field of fluorescence detection of colonic neoplastic lesions. Time-slot modulated electromagnetic fields of wireless
communication systems: Is there a health risk for man? The safety guidelines of ICNIRP on bio-effects of low energy fields are based absorption and transformation into thermal effects. These guidelines are much higher than for acute reactions and long time exposure. It is pointed out that the guidelines for cordless telephone and mobile phone should correspond to long time exposure to low energetic electromagnetic fields. Quantum coherence of biophotons and living systems Coherence is a property of the description of the system in the classical
framework in which the subunits of a system act in a cooperative manner.
Coherence becomes classical if the agent causing cooperation is discernible
otherwise it is quantum coherence. Both stimulated and spontaneous biophoton
signals show properties that can be attributed to the cooperative actions
of many photon-emitting units. But the agents responsible for the cooperative
actions of units have not been discovered so far. The stimulated signal
decays with non-exponential character. It is system and situation specific
and sensitive to many physiological and environmental factors. Its measurable
holistic parameters are strength, shape, relative strengths of spectral
components, and excitation curve. The spontaneous signal is non-decaying
with the probabilities of detecting various number of photons to be neither
normal nor Poisson. The detected probabilities in a signal of Parmeliatinctorum
match with probabilities expected in a squeezed state of photons. It is
speculated that an in vivo nucleic acid molecule is an assembly of intermittent
quantum patches that emit biophoton in quantum transitions. The distributions
of quantum patches and their lifetimes determine the holistic features
of biophoton signals, so that the coherence of biophotons is merely a manifestation
of the coherence of living systems. Single photon detectors for biology : Present and
future A summary of the status of present technology for the detection of single photons is presented with a view towards applications in biophotonics. Included are careful discussions of the numerous problems that can be encountered and how to get around them with the hope that this will be of help to biologists interested in doing work in the field of biophotonics. Emphasis is placed on traditional devices, but the field is one which is continuously developing and we review the status of new and very interesting technologies which are becoming available. The paper is meant to be fairly self-contained and assumes no extensive knowledge of the physics of photodetection. |
