Biophotonics is an emerging multidisciplinary research area, embracing all light-based technologies applied to the life sciences and medicine [1-6]. The expression itself is the combination of the Greek syllables "b...Biophotonics is an emerging multidisciplinary research area, embracing all light-based technologies applied to the life sciences and medicine [1-6]. The expression itself is the combination of the Greek syllables "bios" standing for life and "phos" standing for light. Photonics is the technical term for all methodologies and technologies utilizing photons over the whole spectrum from X-ray over the ultraviolet, visible and the infrared to the terahertz region, and its interaction with any matter. Beyond this definition, biophotonics is a scientific discipline of remarkable societal importance. As a part of photonics, it has proved to be an important enabling technology for accelerated progress in medicine and biotechnology. It can do so, because it originated at the interface of the most innovative academic disciplines of the last century, i.e., photonics, biotechnology and nanotechnologies. This field of research brings together scientists from different professions, such as physicists, biologists, pharmacists, medical doctors, etc. To work on common projects, they need to understand the ideas and the techniques of their counterparts.展开更多
文摘Biophotonics is an emerging multidisciplinary research area, embracing all light-based technologies applied to the life sciences and medicine [1-6]. The expression itself is the combination of the Greek syllables "bios" standing for life and "phos" standing for light. Photonics is the technical term for all methodologies and technologies utilizing photons over the whole spectrum from X-ray over the ultraviolet, visible and the infrared to the terahertz region, and its interaction with any matter. Beyond this definition, biophotonics is a scientific discipline of remarkable societal importance. As a part of photonics, it has proved to be an important enabling technology for accelerated progress in medicine and biotechnology. It can do so, because it originated at the interface of the most innovative academic disciplines of the last century, i.e., photonics, biotechnology and nanotechnologies. This field of research brings together scientists from different professions, such as physicists, biologists, pharmacists, medical doctors, etc. To work on common projects, they need to understand the ideas and the techniques of their counterparts.