The fIrst edition of the Science 0/ Photobiology edited by Kendric C. Smith (plenum Press, 1977) was a comprehensive textbook of photobiology, devoting a chapter to each of the subdisciplines of the fIeld. At the end of many of these chapters there were brief descriptions of simple experiments that students could perform to demonstrate the principles discussed. In the succeeding years some photobiologists felt that a more complete publica tion of experiments in photobiology would be a useful teaching tool. Thus, in the 1980s the American Society for Photobiology (ASP) attempted to produce a...

Radiation induces a variety of chemical processes in biological tissues. This volume is a synthesis of up-to-the-minute reviews on such photochemical and photobiological sensitized reactions with particular relevance to photomedicine. The first part gives a description of experimental techniques for the study of the primary processes after radiation absorption by biological systems. It is followed by chapters on singlet oxygen and photomedicine, considering both phototherapy and photochemotherapy. These sections also discuss the next generation of potential photosensitizing drugs.

Man has recognised an association of light with life and medicine for over 3000 years. Today the major challenges to this topic include the elucidation of photochemical reactions involved in photobiology at the molecular level. This includes the use of a variety of modem probing techniques that directly measures the reactivity of excited states and free radicals involved in biological reactions. This text-book is based on such an approach and has arisen from some of the lectures delivered at the NATO ASI held at Hotel Capo Caccia near the Centre for Advanced Research in Photobiology (CARP) in...