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Indian Journal of Experimental Biology
Vol 46, May 2008, pp. 267-272
A tribute to Fritz-Albert Popp on the occasion of his 70th birthday
Marco Bischof
International Institute of Biophysics, Neuss, Germany & Future Science & Medicine, Berlin, Germany
On May 11, 2008 the German biophysicist Professor Fritz-Albert Popp will celebrate his 70th birthday. This is a
welcome occasion to pay tribute to the scientific achievements and human qualities of a scientist whose merits as one of the
founders of biophotonics and as a pioneer of quantum biophysics increasingly find appreciation internationally.
Founder of biophotonics and pioneer of quantum
biophysics
Popp is mainly known as the founder of a new field
of research in biophysics: in the mid-1970s he
rediscovered at the University of Marburg, at the
same time but independently from the groups of Boris
Tarusov (Russia), Terence Quickenden (Australia),
Humio Inaba (Japan) and Janusz Slawinski (Poland),
the ultraweak photon emission (UPE) from living
systems. It had originally been discovered in 1922 by
the Russian biologist Alexander G. Gurwitsch who
called it “mitogenetic radiation”1 and attracted world-
wide attention in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but after
WW II was largely forgotten and partially
compromised. It is the great merit of Fritz Popp to
have renewed this line of research. Popp who coined
the term “biophotons” for the emission of photons
from biological systems, played a significant role in
establishing the new field of biophotonics as a branch
of biophysics by systematic experimental
corroboration of many essential aspects of UPE by
modern single-photon counting technology and by
laying the basis for the theoretical understanding of
the observed phenomena by means of quantum optics.
The experimentally verified phenomena of light
emission from living organisms prompted Popp to
make fundamental considerations about the nature of
life which lead already in the 1970s and 1980s to the
first formulations of his “biophoton theory”2-9. Many
of his ideas have been confirmed since then and his
theory has been considerably extended and
corroborated by Popp since that time10-16. Although
today some elements of his biophoton theory still
remain speculative and need further testing and
confirmation, these works have made Popp one of the
principal inspirers and pioneers of a new, holistic and
integrative biophysics which increasingly finds
interest and application with bioscientists of many
countries. It is based, as one of the most fundamental
aspects, on a field-oriented picture of the organism.
This acts as a corrective to the massive accumulation
of detail knowledge and the disconnected
fragmentation of the biosciences by the dominating
trend of molecular biology, and provides again a
chance for developing a unifying picture of life and
holistic life sciences. Together with many other recent
developments in the biosciences, the results of
biophoton research constitute one of the major
contributions to an emerging new, holistic and
comprehensive picture of life based on quantum
physics17.
His foundational work in quantum biology also
made Popp one of the internationally acclaimed
pioneers of the application of quantum, especially
quantum optical, principles and findings in biology. In
this, he resumed and renewed some work by the first
pioneers of quantum biology in the 1930’s, such as
Alexander Gurwitsch, Paul Weiss, Ludwig von
Bertalanffy, Pascual Jordan, Erwin Schroedinger, and
Herbert Froehlich who countered the emerging
molecular biology with a more holistic approach18,19.
In 1997 the existence of macroscopic quantum
phenomena and their possible substantial role in
biology has been acknowledged by eminent scientists
in an international conference in Boston19; Popp was
one of the speakers and his concepts already were
accepted as a matter of course. His discovery that the
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Telephone: +49-30-533 12 202
Fax: +49-30-533 12 209
E-mail: mb@marcobischof.com
INDIAN J EXP BIOL., MAY 2008
268
hyperbolic decay of induced biophoton emission can
be taken as a proof of the coherence of the emission20
may possibly become fundamental not only for
biophoton research, but for quantum optics in general.
It is also not without significance that the results of
biophoton research constitute one of the first
experimental proofs for Nobel laureate Ilya
Prigogine’s theory of “dissipative structures”.
Life and work
Fritz-Albert Popp was born on May 11, 1938 in
Frankfurt am Main and grew up near the town of
Coburg (Upper Franconia). In 1957 he began to study
physics at the University of Göttingen and in 1966 he
obtained his diploma in Experimental Physics at the
University of Würzburg. In 1969 he obtained his
Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of
Mainz. In 1970 Popp took his first academic job as an
assistant at the Radiology Center of the University
Clinic of Marburg, where he obtained his habilitation
in Theoretical Radiology and Biophysics in 1972.
From 1973 to 1980 he was a lecturer (docent) for
Radiology at the University of Marburg. During his
time at Marburg University Popp also started his work
in biophotonics. As radiology officer of the clinic he
was technically responsible for the irradiation
treatments of cancer patients. Therefore he was
naturally interested in the cancer problem, and
together with his diploma and Ph.D. candidates he set
out to study the actual state of cancer research. Based
on quantum theoretical considerations and
calculations he investigated the question why one of
the two substances, benzo(a)pyrene and
benzo(e)pyrene with identical chemical structure, is
strongly cancerogenic, while the other is completely
harmless2-4. He found that benzo(a)pyrene which
occurs in tobacco smoke, car exhausts, etc. and in
which merely one of the five benzene rings is
configured differently, only differs by its fluorescence
in the blue-violet range from the sister substance.
Now it was well known that light in the blue-violet
spectral range can repair chromosome damage within
seconds in the process known as “photo-repair”. This
finding prompted Popp to develop concepts on the
possible role of light in cancinogenesis and generally
in the process of life3-5. In 1973 Popp was first
informed about the researches of Russian scientists in
the wake of Alexander Gurwitsch about the possible
role of light in biological communication. In 1975
Popp’s Ph.D. student Bernhard Ruth built a highly
sensitive emission photometer, which made it possible
to provide a water-tight proof of the existence of
“ultraweak photo-emission” in biological systems and
to systematically investigate its properties for the first
time7,21. These developments determined the further
course of Popp’s scientific career, and from now on
he devoted all his efforts to the systematic study of
cellular light and its implications22,23. Already in these
ten years at Marburg University (1970-1980), in a
clear-sighted and innovative vision Popp developed
most of the basic ideas of his biophoton theory many
of which have been confirmed through the later
researches of his own or other groups since that time.
However, also what kind of consequences Popp
would have to endure time and again in his career for
advancing the bold hypothesis that light existed in the
cell and there fulfilled communication and regulation
functions, became already clear in his time at
Marburg. The growing number of publications in
scientific journals and the increasing experimental
confirmation also by other research groups resulted in
the theoretical support by fellow scientists, among
them the eminent physicist Herbert Froehlich
(in 1976) and the physical chemist and Nobel laureate
Ilya Prigogine (in 1985).
During 1980-1982 Popp was director of a small
private research laboratory in Flörsheim near Worms,
until he followed an invitation by the renowned cell
biologist Walter Nagl in 1982, to establish a research
group at the chair of cell biology of the University of
Kaiserslautern. In 1986 he founded the company
Strahlungsanalysen (later Biophotonik) for the
development of commercial applications of the
research findings at the newly established Technology
Park of Kaiserslautern. In 1992 the International
Institute of Biophysics (IIB) was founded as an
international network of research groups in biophoton
research. At the Moscow State University and at the
Chinese Universities of Hangzhou and Harbin “Open
Laboratories” were founded by members of the IIB as
common initiatives of the IIB and these universities.
Since 1995 the IIB is based in Neuss where it is
located, as the scientific part of a “Creativity Lab”
together with artist’s studios and lecture halls, on the
site of a former NATO missile launching installation
linked with the “Museumsinsel Hombroich”, well-
known in international arts circles. The membership
of the IIB has steadily increased in the course of time
and today comprises 19 research groups from
13 countries. More recently, a number of conferences
BISCHOF: TRIBUTE TO FRITZ-ALBERT POPP
269
devoted to the work of Herbert Froehlich have led to a
rapprochement between the Popp group and a number
of scientists investigating biophysical aspects of life
on the basis of Froehlich’s concepts; some of them
have become members of the IIB. The yearly summer
schools held in Neuss since 2001 are very successful
and show steadily increasing numbers of participants
from all over the planet who appreciate the unusual
combination of scientific rigor with openness, a
stimulating atmosphere and richly varied
interdisciplinary presentations and discussions. A
number of conference proceedings and other edited
works by members of the IIB have been published by
renowned scientific publishers like World Scientific,
Kluwer, and Springer12-16,24-26. Popp himself is the
author of more than hundred papers in scientific
journals, about fifty contributions to edited works and
eight monographs of which one has been translated
into French, Polish, and Italian. He is also the editor
of ten collective works. An extensive list of
publications by Popp and other researchers on
biophoton research, integrative biophysics and related
questions can be found on the IIB website at:
http://www.lifescientists.de/publication/bibliography1
-1.htm. Popp has repeatedly been invited to lecture at
a number of universities worldwide and has been
appointed visiting or honorary professor of several
universities in China, India, Germany and the USA.
He is also an invited member of the New York
Academy of Sciences, a member of the Executive
Board of Directors of the Center for Frontier Sciences
at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, and a
member of the International Consciousness Research
Laboratory (ICRL) at Princeton University, USA.
Scientific achievements
Popp can look back to a number of important
achievements. In the 1970s and beginning of 1980s he
made essential contributions to the firm establishment
of the existence of ultraweak photon emission
(biophotons) and to providing evidence for its
universal occurrence in almost all biological species.
As it also was the case later, here Popp did not
perform experiments himself, but acted as a head of
research groups, supervisor of students and
postgraduates, and stimulator of research partners.
Also, in the next phase of systematic investigation of
the biophoton phenomenon his laboratory played a
key role. Here the task was to demonstrate that the
changes in the intensity of biophoton emission were
an expression of physiological processes and
reactions to external influences, but could not be
reduced to the effects of factors such as temperature
changes or the influence of oxygen. This is of a
double significance: On one hand, it shows that
biophoton emission can not only be interpreted as
pure “spontaneous chemiluminescence” from
oxidation or other chemical processes, but can also be
understood as an expression of a living whole and is
biologically significant. On the other, the light
emission reflects all the states and changes of and
influences on the organism, such that its measurement
can provide information about these parameters.
In 1981 Popp performed an experiment together
with his student Martin Rattemeyer which showed
that the helical molecules of DNA are the main source
of biophoton emission in the cell22,27. This conclusion
has been supported by the later experiments by Wei
Ping Mei, Hugo Niggli and Roeland van Wijk et al.
The next step in corroboration of Popp’s
hypothesis that the light stored in DNA together with
a coherent biophoton field that permeates at least the
cell, if not the whole organism, could be the central
regulating instance in the organism, was to answer the
question if the DNA molecule was at all able to
absorb, store and emit light in a differentiated way.
This was attempted with the so-called “exciplex
model of DNA” developed by Popp together with the
laser theoretician Keh-Hsueh Li of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences—he had collaborated with
Popp since the time in the Flörsheim Laboratory—and
the cell biologist Walter Nagel of Kaiserslautern
University10.
Another important achievement of Fritz Popp is
the introduction of photon count statistics into
biophoton research. This made it possible to place
the observed phenomena into the context of
quantum optics – a field which has made rapid
progress in the last 20 years and in which a number
of completely new disciplines, such as Cavity
Electrodynamics and Non-Classical Light, have
emerged that treat exactly those phenomena in the
area of ultraweak radiation with which biophoton
research is concerned. Therefore biophotonics has
become the first area of biology in which these
quantum optical phenomena, up to now only
theoretically predicted and technically generated,
have been observed in nature. By applying photon
count statistics in addition to the measurement of
the pure spontaneous eigen-radiation of the
INDIAN J EXP BIOL., MAY 2008
270
organisms (“spontaneous luminescence”), the even
more productive investigative method of measuring
the induced or stimulated biophoton emission
(“delayed luminescence”) was made accessible.
Here the organisms are subjected to a short
excitation with light before the measurement, such
that the particular nature of the interaction of living
matter with light is manifested particularly well.
The method reveals that living systems re-emit the
absorbed light with a great delay, similar to some
recently discovered solid-state systems. More than
10 years of investigations by Popp’s group showed
that the characteristic of the “hyperbolic decay” of
the re-emitted radiation observed in these
measurements is a reliable indicator for the
coherence of biophoton emission, an additional
property of cell radiation besides intensity that
meanwhile has become one of the most
fundamental criteria in biophoton research.
Coherence – the order and interference ability of
light – is the principal property of laser light and
the prerequisite for the informative and regulative
ability of biophotons which is postulated by Popp’s
biophoton theory.
As a central element of this theory, Popp developed
in 1983, together with his colleagues Li and Nagel, a
physical model of the possible mechanism of the
regulation of biological and biochemical processes by
the biophoton field20,23. This electromagnetic model of
cell differentiation and growth has been repeatedly
submitted to successful experimental tests, among
others by the Polish scientist couple Barbara and
Stanislaw Chwirot on larch spores29-31 and by the
Dutch cell biologist Roeland van Wijk on human
cells32
Last but not least with his work Popp has laid the
foundations for a number of possible applications,
some of which are already being tested in practice,
while others still necessitate further fundamental
research. Among them is the possibility to
differentiate cancer cells from healthy cells of the
same type by their biophoton emission33, as well as
the evaluation of food quality by biophoton
measurement34-36. The promising results of systematic
investigations of human biophoton emission by a
specially developed whole body measurement
equipment initiated by Popp37-40 and continued by
Roeland and Eduard van Wijk41-43 constitute the first
steps to a possible application in medical and
psychological diagnostics.
Evaluation
In summary, the most important of Popp’s
scientific achievements probably consist, besides the
experimental securing of the basic phenomena and the
foundation of the methodology of biophoton research,
in the demonstration of the coherence of ultraweak
bioluminescence, in the establishment of its
investigation as a division of quantum biology, in the
renewal of the work of the 1930 pioneers, in the
development of his highly stimulating theoretical
ideas, and in his never-tiring stimulation, mentoring,
advice and support of the research of students,
collaborators and colleagues. Even if some of his
theoretical work may remain speculative or may not
stand to the tests to come, Popp certainly has
established himself as one of the most important
pioneers and inspirers of biophotonics and of a new
biophysics, and as the doyen of the biophysical school
of cell radiation research. He belongs to the pioneers
in the realization of the paradigm change initiated by
scientists like Alexander Gurwitsch, Paul Weiss,
Ervin Bauer, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Erwin
Schrödinger, Ilya Prigogine, Herbert Fröhlich etc. that
leads our concept of life slowly but securely away
from Newtonian-Cartesian mechanical and
equilibrium notions17. But in this tribute to Fritz
Popp’s achievements let us not forget his human
qualities and mention that without his visionary
imagination that complements his professional
competence, without his enormous dedication to the
envisioned goal, without the stamina and
perseverance, and without the ability to motivate
others he would not have been able to get the new
field of research accepted.
Certainly Fritz Popp could have had a more
comfortable life if he had taken a more conventional
route. More than three decades of untiring devotion to
the noble cause of biophotonics, lots of labor and
struggles for economic survival have taken their toll
on Fritz Popp’s health. We thank him for his highly
valuable engagement for a new science and wish him
for the beginning of his eighth decade that he now
may be finally able, like others of his age, to reap the
fruits of his life-long labours. It is his own wish to be
able to continue to promote the application of
biophoton research in fields like food quality, health
and environmental research and obtain further
insights into life processes. In the last few decades his
interest particularly was devoted also to the
connections between cell radiation and consciousness
BISCHOF: TRIBUTE TO FRITZ-ALBERT POPP
271
and evolution44. We wish him (and ourselves) that, in
spite of all adversities, he may be granted many more
years of unbroken creative power, enjoyment and
stamina to make further contributions to these fields.
Acknowledgement
Sincere thanks are due to Professors Larissa
Brizhik, Lev Beloussov and Roeland van Wijk for
attentively reading this text and offering helpful
comments and suggestions.
References
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relevant contribution to the theory of morphogenetic fields.
With additional commentary by John M.Opitz and Scott
F.Gilbert, Int J Dev Biol, 41 (1997) 771.
2 Popp F A, MO-Rechnungen an 3,4-Benzpyren und 1,2-
Benzpyren legen ein Modell zur Deutung der chemischen
Karzinogenese nahe, Zeitschr f Naturf, 27b (1972) 731.
3 Popp F A, Zur Resonanzhypothese der Kanzerogenese.
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4 Popp F A, Einige Möglichkeiten für Biosignale zur
Steuerung des Zellwachstums, Arch Geschwulstf, 44 (1974)
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5 Popp F A, Schaumlöffel E, Böhm P, Herrmann K &
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6 Popp F A, So könnte Krebs entstehen. Bild der Wissensch,
13, (1976) 58.
7 Popp F A, Becker G, König H L, Peschka, W,
Electromagnetic Bio-Information, Proceedings of the
Symposium, Marburg, September 5, 1977 (Urban &
Schwarzenberg, Munich-Vienna-Baltimore) 1979.
8 Popp F A, Electromagnetic control of cell processes, in
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Therapeutics - Interaction of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic
Radiation with Living Systems, Versailles, May 19-20, 1979,
edited by ZW Wolkowski (Université de Paris-Val de Marne,
Créteil) 1983, 60
9 Popp F A, Photons and their importance to biology, in
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Wave
Therapeutics - Interaction of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic
Radiation with Living Systems, Versailles, May 19-20, 1979,
edited by ZW Wolkowski (Université de Paris-Val de Marne,
Créteil) 1983, 43.
10 Popp F A, Biologie des Lichts, Grundlagen der
ultraschwachen Zellstrahlung (Paul Parey Verlag, Berlin and
Hamburg) 1984.
11 Popp FA, Gurwitsch A A, Inaba, H, Slawinski, J, Cilento,
G, van Wijk R, Chwirot, W B & Nagl W, Biophoton
emission (Multi-Author Review), Experientia, 44 (1988)
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12 Popp F A & Li K H, Gu Q, Recent advances in biophoton
research and its applications (World Scientific Publishing,
Singapore) 1992.
13 Ho M W, Popp F A & Warnke U, Bioelectrodynamics and
Biocommunication (World Scientific Publishing, Singapore)
1994.
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and coherent systems in biology, biophysics and
biotechnology, Proceedings of the International Conference
Dedicated to the 120th Birthday of Alexander Gavrilovich
Gurwitsch (1874-1954), September 28 - October 2, 1994,
Moscow, Russia (Bioinform Services, Moscow) 1995.
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Academic Publishers, Dordrecht) 1998.
16 Shen X & Wijk R van, Biophotonics – Optical science and
engineering for the 21st century, (Springer, New York) 2005.
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(Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht) 2003, 1.
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Wijk R (Springer, New York) 2005, VI.
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Macroscopic quantum coherence, Proceedings of the
International Conference, Northeastern University, Boston,
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Singapore) 1998.
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condition of a fully coherent ergodic field, Int J Theor Phys,
32 (1993) 1573.
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Rattemeyer M, Schmidt HG & Wulle P, Emission of visible
and ultraviolet radiation by active biological systems,
Collective Phenomena, 3 (1981), 187.
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differentiation. II. Applications and examples, Cytobios, 37
(1983) 71.
29 Chwirot W B, Dygdala R S & Chwirot S, Quasi-
monochromatic-light-induced photon emission from
microsporocytes of larch showing oscillation decay
behaviour predicted by an electromagnetic model of
differentiation, Cytobios, 47 (1986) 137.
30 Chwirot W B, Ultraweak photon emission and anther meiotic
cycle in larix europea (experimental investigation of Nagl
and Popp's electromagnetic model of differentiation),
Experientia, 44 (1988) 594.
31 Chwirot W B & Dygdala R S, Ethidium-bromide-induced
changes in intensity of ultraweak photon-emission from
microsporocytes of larch in selected stages of development, J
Plant Physiol, 134 (1989) 762.
32 Wijk, R van, Aken, H van, Mei W & Popp F A, Light-
induced photon emission by mammalian cells, J Photochem
Photobiol B, 18 (1993) 75.
INDIAN J EXP BIOL., MAY 2008
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between normal and malignant cells, in Energy transfer
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Verlag, Berlin-New York) 1987, 248.
34 Köhler B, Lambing K, Neurohr R, Nagl W, Popp F A &
Wahler J, Photonenemission - Eine neue Methode zur
Erfassung der "Qualität" von Lebensmitteln, Dt Lebensm
Rundsch, 87 (1991) 78.
35 Köhler B, Fölsch D W, Strube J & Lange K, The influence of
housing systems on the egg quality under particular
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conditions, 13th International Conference of the IFOAM (Int.
Federation of Agricultural Movements), Basel, Switzerland,
28-31 August 2000.
36 Popp F A, Die Botschaft der Nahrung, Unsere Lebensmittel
in neuer Sicht (The Message of Food. Our Foodstuffs in a
New Perspective), Fischer alternativ (Fischer Taschenbuch
Verlag, Frankfurt am Main) 1993. 2nd expanded edition
(Verlag Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt am Main) 1999, 3rd ed.
2000, 4th ed. 2001.
37 Cohen S & Popp F A, Low-level luminescence of the human
skin, Skin Res Technol, 3 (1997) 177.
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body, J Photochem Photobiol B: Biology, 40 (1997) 187.
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Publishers, Dordrecht) 1998.
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139.
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characterization of human ultra-weak photon emission with a
moveable photomultiplier and CCD imaging, J Photochem
Photobiol B: Biology, 83 (2006) 69.
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Rubik (Center for Frontier Sciences at Temple University,
Philadelphia) 1992.
