Light in shaping life

The production of biological light (ultra-weak photon emission or biophotons) within many typesof cells and tissues is characteristic of an alive organism.You will begin a journey of discovery about biophotons in relationshipto biological matterand about how such biophotonscan be detected utilizing specialized very photon-sensitivetechnologies.In this book, Roeland Van Wijk provides a unified synthesis that facilitates easy entry into an excitingsub-field of biology. Light in Shaping Life encompasses the history of biophoton research,insight into how biophotons are generated, and into their involvement with life. Also included, isan overview of the potential benefits of such research to a better understandingof health and medicine. About the AuthorRoeland van Wijk, Ph.D., graduated in biophysical chemistry and molecular biology, and received his Ph.D. at the Utrecht University (Utrecht, The Netherlands). He lectured molecular cell biology at Utrecht University and was visiting scientist at the National Jewish Hospital and Research Centre and the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute For Cancer Research (Denver, USA), and at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (Basel, Switzerland).He is Director of the institute on Measurements on Luminescence of Natural products (MeLuNa) and Advisor at Sino-Dutch Centre for Preventive and Personalized Medicine (Centre for Photonics of Living Systems) at Leiden University (The Netherlands). His major research projects are (a) Molecular basis of stress; (b) Stress, differentiation and tumor growth; (c) Photon emission in relation to tumor development; and (d) Human biophoton research in health and disease. Contents1 Prelude The Roots of a Field in Biology2 A Field in Regeneration3 A Field that Guides Generation4 Does a Field also Guide the Development of Cancer? Birth and Growth of Biophoton Field Concept5 Early Systems Biology and the Morphogenetic Radiation Field6 Biology Looks at Physics7 The Entrance of the Photomultiplier8 World-wide Expansion of Photon Emission Research Cancer Metabolism and Photon Emission9 Cancer: Energy Metabolism in Relationship to Differentiation10 More about Cancer as a Model and its Relationship to Proliferation11 Beyond Respiration: Free Radicals and Photon Emission From Bio-Electromagnetism to the Photon Field Concept12 Field Theory and Bio-electromagnetism13 Bone: Semiconductors as Biophoton Emitters14 Electromagnetic Fields and Life15 Revival of the Photon Field Concept The Photon Field Concept in Health and Disease16 Photon Storage and Emission in Cancer Cells17 Photon Field Aspects in the 1990's18 Human Photon Emission in Health and Disease19 Imaging Human Photon Emission20 Perspectives by John M. Ackerman:Biophotons as a Bridge between Western and Chinese Medicine? GlossaryIndex