Jiin-Ju Chang

Cryo-electron microscopy of vitrified specimens was just emerging as a practical method when Richard Henderson proposed that we should teach an EMBO course on the new technique. The request seemed to come too early because at that moment the method looked more like a laboratory game than a useful tool. However, during the months which ellapsed before the start of the course, several of the major difficulties associated with electron microscopy of vitrified specimens found surprisingly elegant solutions or simply became non-existent. The course could therefore take place under favourable circumstances in the summer of 1983. It was repeated the following years and cryo-electron microscopy spread rapidly. Since that time, water, which was once the arch enemy of all electronmicroscopists, became what it always was in nature – an integral part of biological matter and a beautiful substance.

Biophotons (BPHs) are weak photons within or emitted from living organisms. The intensities of BPHs range from a few to several hundred photons s(-1) x cm(-2). BPH emission originates from a de-localized coherent electromagnetic field within the living organisms and is regulated by the field. In this paper based on the experimental results of Poisson and sub-Poisson distributions of photocount statistics, the coherent properties of BPHs and their functions in cell communication are described. Discussions are made on functions which BPHs may play in DNA and proteins functioning including the process of DNA replication, protein synthesis and cell signalling and in oxidative phosporylation and photosynthesis.