INTRODUCTION

Excerpts from the Wikipedia entry:

  • Biophotons  are photons of light in the ultraviolet and low visible light range that are produced by a biological system.
  • They are non-thermal in origin, and the emission of biophotons is technically a type of bioluminescence, though bioluminescence is generally reserved for higher luminance luciferin/luciferase systems.
  • The term biophoton used in this narrow sense should not be confused with the broader field of biophotonics, which studies the general interaction of light with biological systems.
  • Biophotons may be detected with photomultipliers or by means of an ultra low noise CCD camera to produce an image, using an exposure time of typically 15 minutes for plant materials

DISCOVERY & DEVELOPMENT

Alexander Gurwitsch discovered biophotons in 2013 during his stint as the chair of Histology at Taurida University. Excerpts from his wiki entry:

  • Gurwitsch named the phenomenon mitogenetic radiation, since he believed that this light radiation allowed the morphogenetic field to control embryonic development.
  • His published observations, which related that cell proliferation of an onion was accelerated by directing these rays down a tube, brought him great attention.
  • Some 500 attempts at replication, however, produced overwhelmingly negative results, so that the idea was neglected for decades until it commanded some renewed interest in the later 20th century.
  • … the tenacity of Anna Gurwitsch (his daughter), together with the development of the photon counter multiplier, resulted in the confirmation of the phenomenon of biophotons in 1962.
  • The observation was duplicated in a Western laboratory by Quickenden and Que Hee in 1974.
  • In the same year, Dr. V. P. Kaznacheyev announced that his research team in Novosibirsk had detected intercellular communication by means of these rays.
  • There has been a recent revival in field theories of life, albeit again at the fringes of science, particularly among those who seek to include an account of developmental psychobiology. The influence of Gurvitsch’s theory is particularly evident in the work of the British plant physiologist, Rupert Sheldrake, and his concept of “morphic resonance.”

Other related topics: morphogenetic field, embryology, gastrulation, histology, ontogeny,  self-organization, Ilya Prigogine,  non-equilibrium thermodynamics in living systems, Systems Biology, biophotonics,

CELLULAR COMMUNICATION VIA BIOPHOTONS

Sergey Mayburov published a paper “Photonic Communications and Information Encoding in Biological Systems” in 2012. While studying the structure of optical radiation emitted by fish eggs, he discovered that there was a pattern (mentioned as “quasi-periodic bursts”) in the photon radiation from the eggs. This is similar to binary communication in computers and their networks.

From a report at phys.org titled “Research suggests cells communicate via biophotons” (2012):

Mayburov is not alone in his thinking. Other researchers have found what they believe to be evidence of cells communicating by emitting streams of biophotons. Some have even have found what they believe are associations between the emittance of biophotons and increased cell division in plants growing in close proximity; so much so that they have measured increases of up to 30%. Others have found that biophotons emitted from older eggs in a clutch, appear to inhibit the growth of immature eggs; a form of survival of the fittest, or at least the more mature.

From a report at MIT Technology Review titled “Biophoton Communication: Can Cells Talk Using Light? (2012):

  • Nobody is quite sure how cells produce biophotons but the latest thinking is that various molecular processes can emit photons and that these are transported to the cell surface by energy carying excitons. A similar process carries the energy from photons across giant protein matrices during photosynthesis.
  • Whatever the mechanism, a growing number of biologists are convinced that when you switch off the lights, cells are bathed in the pale fireworks of a biophoton display.
  • Mayburov’s work won’t end the controversy; not by any means. There are still many outstanding questions. One important problem is to better understand the cellular mechanisms at work–how the molecular machinery inside cells produces photons and how it might be influenced by them. Another is to understand the kind of evolutionary pressures that are at work here–how has this ability come about?

[to be continued…]