Alexander Gurwitsch around 1930

Around 1923 Alexander Gurwitsch discovers an "ultraweak" photon emission from living systems (onions, yeast,...), since he suggested connections between photon emission and cell division rate. He called this photonemission "mitogenetic radiation". His experiments indicate the wavelength in the range of around 260 nm (Bibliography under Gurwisch and also Ruth (1977, 1979)).

Around 1950: Russian scientists rediscovered an "ultraweak photon emission" from living organisms. Most results are published in "Biophysics" (engl.) and originally in "Biofizika").( Bibliography under Ruth, 1979).

Italian nuclear physicists by chance discoverd a "bioluminescence" of seedlings. They did not consider then this finding significant, but they published the results. (Colli et al. 1954, 1955, Ruth 1979).

The Russian biophysicist and the American chemist enunciated the first theory of ultraweak photonemission (UWPE) from biological systems, the so called "Imperfection Theory". UWPE is supposed to be an expression of the deviation from equilibrium, some kind of distortion of metabolic processes (Zhuravlev 1972, Seliger 1975, Ruth 1979).

Independently from each other and driven by different motivations scientific groups in Australia (Quickenden), Germany (Fritz-Albert Popp), Japan (Inaba), and Poland (Slawinski) showed evidence of ultraweak photon emission from biological systems by use of modern single-photon counting systems. Bibliography (Quickenden, Inaba, Popp &Ruth, Slawinski).

While Quickenden, Slawinski and Inaba prefered the Imperfection Theory, Popp and his group however enunciated the opposite theory:

1. Radiation originates from an almost perfectly coherent photon field.
2. Essential sources are the DNA and corresponding resonators in the cells.
3. The mechanism describes photon storage in cavities and information channels, tuned by Casimir forces.
4. There is a close connection to delayed luminescence which corresponding to excited states of the coherent photon field.
5. Radiation is not the product but essentially the initiator of chemical reactions in the cells. The radiation submits the information within and between cells.
6. Radiation is not limited to the optical range but follows a f = const-rule (the occupation probability of the phase space is the same for all wavelengths) and extends to longer wavelengths including the so called heat radiation of the body.
7. This radiation is the proper regulator and information carrier of life.

The Marburg group around Fritz-Albert Popp calls this phenomenon "biophotons" in order to stress the difference to "bioluminescence": Biophotons are single quanta being permanently and continuously emitted by all living systems. They are a subject of quantum physics and they display an universal phenomenon attributed to all living systems. Wordlwide all scientists who agree with these statements call the radiation biophotons and the scientific field "Biophotonics".

From 1972 to 1980 the Marburg group with its leader, the physicist and Dr. habil. Fritz-Albert Popp, experimentally evaluated all the essential physical properties of biophotons.

1. The intensity ranges from a few up to some hundreds of photons/(s cm²).
2. The spectral distribution follows the time average a f = const-rule.
3. The modes are strongly coupled.
4. The delayed luminescence continuously approaching the biophoton emission follows a hyperbolic rather than an exponential relaxation function.
5. The biophotons origin from an almost fully coherent field.
6. Cells are able to establish cavity resonators which contribute to biophoton regulation.
7. The essential source of non-equilibrium biophoton emission is the DNA.

For the first time his group introduces photocount statistics (PCS) into Biophotonics. They show evidence that biophotons are emitted according to a Poissonian PCS and furthermore (1) delayed luminescence follows a hyperbolic relaxation function rather than an exponential one, (2) the modes are strongly coupled, and (3) there are hyperbolic oscillations around the continous hyperbolic relaxation function. The group for the first time found intercellular communication by means of biophotons. Later this was confirmed by Albrecht-Bühler (Bacteria), Popp and Chang (dinoflagellates), Galle (daphnia), Shen (blood) and Vogel (bacteria).

(Bibliography under Popp and coworkers, i.e. Bahr, Böhm, Grass, Grolig, Herrmann, Kramer, Rattemeyer, Ruth, Schmidt, Wulle, Albrecht-Bühler, Chang, Galle, Shen, Vogel).

The papers of Popp and his group were mainly examined by the group of B. Chwirot (Kopernikus University, Torun) who confirmed the essential results (Bibliography Chwirot et al.).

Herbert Klima (Atom Institute, Vienna) performed his dissertation in Popp`s group at the University of Marburg. He transfered "Biophotonics" to the University in Vienna, in particular investigations on laser excitation of living systems.

(Bibliography Klima or Atominstitut Wien).

J.Slawinski cooperates with groups in Japan, USA and the Popp-group in Germany. He mainly followed the links between biophotons and biochemical reactions. From these a branch of biochemical Biophotonics arose that became an essential part, mainly in Japan and the USA.

(Bibliography Slawinski).

Popp and Li around 1980

From 1981 to 1986 Walter Nagl, a famous biologist working on molecular biology, invited Fritz-Albert Popp to cooperate with him in his laboratory at the University in Kaiserslautern. Nagl, Popp and Li established fundamental theories about biophotons and cell growth and differentiation, essential differences between a tumor tissue and a normal one, some experimental evidence of DNA as source of biophotons and theoretical models like the exciplex model. They hypothesize that the scattering patterns of photons of cells contain information about viral (or bacterial) infections. This was confirmed by scientists of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA. The virologist Lipkind found the first indications of assessing virus infections by biophotons.

(Bibliography Nagl, Li, Popp, Schamhart, Scholz, Lipkind).

Biophotons and Biophotonics become official disciplines in Chinese and Indian Universities.

From 1986 on a new scientific group of Popp's enters the Technology Center in Kaiserslautern, in order to investigate possibilities of applications of biophotons. During this time the following applications, among others, were protected by European or international patent applications.

1. Assessment of quantitative and qualitative differences between normal und tumour tissues.
2. Assessment of food quality, among other things freshness and shelf life.
3. Assessment of bacterial contamination.
4. Assessment of blood status.
5. Assessment of whole body status.
6. Technical optimization of biophotonic equipments.
7. Electroluminescence methods.

Striking examples are (1) the first proof of significant differences between cavity- and free range eggs in case of no differences of the material contents, (2) evaluation of the quality of food in terms of different quality dimensions and consequently the quality order for every dimension, (3) the possibility of treatment of tumour tissue by selected non-toxic agents, (4) non-invasive control of the efficacy of therapeutic or cosmetic treatments, (5) assessment of bacterial contamination down to 10 bacterial/ml; (6) assessment of smallest quality differences of water, (7) examination of environmental conditions.

The group in the Technology Center in Kaiserlautern built (1) the first "Restlichtverstärker" for real pictures of biophoton emission on a screen in real time screening, (2) the first complete body counting system in a big dark chamber for measuring the biophoton emission of the human body. For he first time they showed evidence that biophoton emission of the human body follows on all points the natural biological rhythms with phase shifts and deviation from these rhythms and/or asymmetries pointing to sickness.

The results were partially confirmed by various other laboratories.

(Bibliography under Popp, Cohen, Niggli, Etienne, Köhler, Lambing, Ho, Musumeci, Schamhart, Mei, Galle and others, Patenapplications).

Popp rejected offers from industry in view of his concerns about the scientific future of biophotonics.

Marco Bischof wrote a bestseller about biophotons (in German, now already in 12th edition).

In other countries scientific groups of well-reputed research institutes and universities around Inaba and Hamamatsu (Japan), Li, Chang and Shen (China), Slawinski (Poland), Anna Gurwitsch and Lev Beloussov (Russia), Mishra and Bajpai (India), Fröhlich, Hyland, Ho (England), van Wijk (Holland), Musumeci (Italy), Fox, Jahn and Puthoff (USA) became strongly interested in Biophotonics and started to work on cooperating and establishing an International Institute of Biophysics (IIB) in Neuss (Germany), where Biophotonics became a common project of research and teaching. This group organizes scientific exchange programs and yearly conferences and publications. The state of "North-Rhine-Westfalia" built the institute on a cultural island near "Museumsinsel Hombroich". Since that time Biophotonics has a common home with liberal and fruitful activities in putting this field forward. Many publications have also appeared since then. There are already books about this field, such as books on conferences at the Moscow State University (L.Beloussov et al eds.), at the Ilmenau Technical University (J.J.Chang et al., eds.), in Kaiserslautern and Neuss (Popp et al.,eds.).

Biophotonics conference and summer school 2002

New books:

H.P.Dürr, F.A.Popp and W.Schommers (eds.): "What is Life?" World Scientific, Hongkong-London 2002.

F.A.Popp and L.Beloussov (eds.): "Integrative Biophysics". Kluwer-Academic Publishers, Dordrecht-London 2003.

There is evidence that living systems do not only emit coherent biophotons but - under given conditions - even squeezed light.

(F.A.Popp, J.J.Chang, A.Herzog, Z.Yan and Y.Yan: "Evidence of Non-Classical (Squeezed) Light in Biological Systems". Phys.Lett. 293 A (2002), 98-102.)

The hyperbolic oscillations around the hyperbolic relaxation function of delayed luminescence can be understood in terms of fully coherent states coupled, but not in terms of chaotic photon fields.

(F.A.Popp and Y.Yan: "Delayed Luminescence of Biological Systems in Terms of Coherent States". Phys. Lett. 293 A (2002), 93-97.

The German group of the IIB around Popp gets a research project from the Ministery of Research in Germany: Development of quantum optical methods for analyzing biological tissues.

Yu Yan showed evidence that biophotons contain the information of the germination capacity of seeds. (Y.Yan: Dissertation, Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Mainz, 2002).

In cooperation with the "Gartenbauzentrum der Landwirtschaftskammer Westfalen-Lippe" it has been shown that the quality of plants can be accurately described by biophotonic assessment. At the same time it turned out that not only the biophoton emission of the human body, but also the one of living plants follows biological rhythms.

(J.Matschke, F.A.Popp and M.Richter: J.Int.Soc.Life Info Sci. (ISLIS) 20 (2002), No.2, 712-720).

Popp and Chang explain the principle of biocommunication by means of biophotons or electromagnetic waves in terms of phase conjugation effects.

(F.A.Popp and J. J.Chang: "Mechanism of Interaction between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Organisms". Science in China, Series C, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2002), 507-518.)

New Scientist reported for the first time about the history of Biophotonics.

R.Bajpai is the editor of a special issue in the Indian scientific literature about Biophotonics. It will appear in spring.

At the end of this summary let us express our thanks in particular to the Familie-Ernst-Wendt-Stiftung (City of Cologne). For years this foundation provided financial support for the existence of the group "Biophotonics"around F.A.Popp. In particular Dr. Gisela Draczynski, Frau Ingeborg Goll and Dr. Karl-Heinz Gebhardt documented their deep understanding for a field that will become one of the most important bases of life sciences.