Biophotonics

For the spontaneous low-level emission of photons from living tissues, see Biophoton.

The term biophotonics[1] denotes a combination of biology and photonics, with photonics being the science and technology of generation, manipulation, and detection of photons, quantum units of light. Photonics is related to electronics and photons. Photons play a central role in information technologies, such as fiber optics, the way electrons do in electronics.

Biophotonics can also be described as the "development and application of optical techniques, particularly imaging, to the study of biological molecules, cells and tissue".[2] One of the main benefits of using the optical techniques which make up biophotonics is that they preserve the integrity of the biological cells being examined.[3][4]

Biophotonics has therefore become the established general term for all techniques that deal with the interaction between biological items and photons. This refers to emission, detection, absorption, reflection, modification, and creation of radiation from biomolecular, cells, tissues, organisms, and biomaterials. Areas of application are life science, medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. Similar to the differentiation between "electric" and "electronics," a difference can be made between applications such as therapy and surgery, which use light mainly to transfer energy, and applications such as diagnostics, which use light to excite matter and to transfer information back to the operator. In most cases, the term biophotonics refers to the latter type of application.

  1. ^ Popp, Jurgen; Tuchin, Valery; Chiou, Arthur; Heinemann, Stefan H. (eds) (2011), Handbook of Biophotonics. Vol.1: Basics and Techniques, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, p. 686, ISBN 978-3-527-41047-7, archived from the original on 2020-06-05, retrieved 2020-06-05 {{citation}}: |first4= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Goda, Keisuke (2019). "Biophotonics and beyond". APL Photonics. 4 (5): 050401. Bibcode:2019APLP....4e0401G. doi:10.1063/1.5100614. ISSN 2378-0967.
  3. ^ "King's College London Centre for Biophotonics". Archived from the original on 2017-01-02. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
  4. ^ SPIE (2015). "Gabriel Popescu plenary talk: Bridging Molecular and Cellular Biology with Optics". SPIE Newsroom. doi:10.1117/2.3201503.18.