The influence of light on the lives of living organisms is all-pervasive, affecting movement, vision, behavior, and physiological activity. This book is a biophysically grounded comparative survey of how animals detect light and perceive their surroundings. Included are discussions of photoreceptors, light emitters, and eyes. The book focuses in particular on the kinds of optical systems that have evolved, beginning with unicellular organisms that detect and respond to light through to more advanced and complex designs for imaging. The relevance of these studies extends beyond biology, since...

attempted to cover metabolic matters already reviewed in Volumes I and II of The Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa (eds. Lwoff, and Lwoff and Hutner). To those interested in the broader aspects of photo synthesis and photoreception, reference is made to Photosynthesis and Related Processes, Volume I, and parts I and 2 of Volume II, by E. Rabinowitch; the Brookhaven Symposium on The Photochemical Ap paratus: Its Structure and Function (1959); the New York Academy of Sciences conference on Photoreception (1958), and to the many recent symposia, reviews, and current journal literature....