BIOPHOTONS - ULTRAWEAK LIGHT-EMISSION FROM LIVING SYSTEMS

Spontaneous ultraweak light emission phenomena that result from living systems, also referred to as 'biophoton emission', occur quite genera lly in nature and are coupled to the endogenous production of excited states within a living system. The detection and characterization of b iophoton emission may be of significant importance because the coheren ce and statistical features of underlying primary excitations governin g endogenous biophysical processes are directly transferred to the pho ton field and vice versa. Examples from organisms and living systems a t various levels of the biological hierarchy show that biophoton emiss ion is an exciting area of research with potential future applications in biology, medicine, pharmacology, environmental sciences and food t echnology.