Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the same time research into the medical uses of EMFs has recently
entered a new more optimistic era. Researchers in this new area
need to examine the role of biogenic photons emitted and absorbed
by biological entities and their therapeutic use within the cell cycle.
Otherareasofresearchsuchasgenetics,microbiology,evolutionary
biology and stem cell technology may also learn from these insights
into how cellsoperate atthe biophotoniclevel.
In many ways biophotonics has had to travel a di
cult and
complex path over the past 150 years. One of the reasons for this
di
cult gestation was the minute size and intrinsic energy of the
photoncomparedwithotherformsofphysicalinteraction,including
nuclear energy. Maxwell identified the wave nature of light by
expressinghisoriginal20quaternionequationsas2waveequations
intheEandHfields.HewentontoshowEMcouldtaketheformofa
plane wave traveling in space at the speed of light. In the decades
that followed long-range radio transmissions validated this wave-
like character. In 1905 Einstein identified the photon as a quantum
of EM energy via the photoelectric effect. Einstein's experiment
had demonstrated a particulate nature of light. Hence there was a
question concerningthe photon—was ita waveor a particle?
Consequently the photon's physical nature was not understood.
In the light of the quantum theory that had emerged by 1927, the
photon's fate was sealed for the rest of the century. Heisenberg
considered the photon an unknowable entity. Either the photon's
momentum or its position could be known, but it was impossible to
simultaneouslyknowboth;perfectknowledgeofthephotonwasnot
possible.Heisenberg'suncertaintyprinciple(HUP)wasseenaspart
ofthephysicalfabricofreality.HUPwasafteralltheunderlyingbasis
of the commutative equations of quantum theory. Another reason
was the experimental fact that the only way to know the photon
was doing required another photon, and that would disturb the
experiment. One way around such an experimental di
culty is to
useourintellectstomodeltheinternalmotionsandstructureofthe
photon exactly as we do in SFT. However, up to the very recent time,
the photon was thought a singularity in space.
Another major reason for the di
culties that biophotonics
endured during the 20th century can beassociated withthe general
excitement surrounding the era of atomic chemistry that emerged
