of Magnetic Fields (Barnothy 1964) was the first publication to discuss this subject in the United States. In 1970, Electromagnetic Fields and Life was published by biophysicist A. S. Presman, also in the United States. During that time, the Russian biophysicists continued with their research. A summary of their work, Ultra-weak radiation in intercellular interaction, was published in 1981 by V. P. Kaznachejew and L. P. Michailowa. They conducted very exact and fundamental research on how biophysical information is transmitted, received, and stored in cells and organs; thus proving that electromagnetic intracellular and intercellular interactions (i. e. electromagnetic bio-information) were valid. These works were the first to clearly show that in order to comprehend life, “considering metabolic functions alone (= exchange of energy and matter) is insufficient. Particularly important is the analysis of information transmitted within living systems.”
Since the 1970s the German physicist F.A. Popp has studied the phenomena of how information is transmitted within living systems. He too encountered plenty of resistance and disrespect from the established scientific community, but was able to conclusively prove that photons transmit information within a cell and between cells. A photon is generally understood to be a light particle without mass. He showed that the DNA of living cells stores and releases photons (biophotons). These frequencies are inconceivably weak. Their intensity is about 1018 (the number 10 followed by 18 zeros) times lower than regular daylight. To prove the existence of such intracellular luminescence he developed a device called a photon multiplier. It is so sensitive that it can register the glow generated by fireflies from a distance of 10 km (16 miles). Using this technique of magnifying light to an extremely high degree, Popp was not only able to prove that photon rays are ubiquitous in all living systems, but also that:
All biochemical reactions in living organisms are operated and regulated by ultra-low electromagnetic frequencies.
This process is regulated by an oscillation field; the human mind cannot fathom the complexity of all its information. “If we wanted to understand the information content of just one single cell, we would need more than 100 years, reading day and night about the different possibilities containing information” (Popp).
The term information is commonly used today. In the physical scientific sense, however, it is hard to define.
R. N. Wiener (1963), founder of cybernetics, unmistakably recognized the superiority of information as compared to matter and energy:
Information is neither energy nor matter. It is a third, intangible entity comparable to a “message” emitted by a sender (or a system that contains the information) to a receiver.
For example, the signals transmitted may be letters, numbers, symbols or the like. In the field of bio-information, they are the electromagnetic frequency patterns as previously mentioned.
When transmitting information, concordance between sender and receiver is crucial. That is to say the sender/receiver must be able to understand the message. Let us use a common example to illustrate this. To have the desired effect, a message delivered via letter must meet a number of criteria. The receiver must be able to read, has to know the characters that were used, and understand the language. The size of the characters (i. e. individual signals) may also make comprehension difficult. Text containing characters several meters in size would be legible only from great distance. Text containing micrometer characters would be legible only using optical devices. Moreover, the receiver must not be blind.
Thus information can only be effective if it resonates with the system it is meant to influence. It must be “suitable for the system.” This applies to the kind of signal as well as its intensity (the size of the letters as in the above-mentioned example).
Physicists (see above-mentioned photon research by Popp) have shown us that ultra-weak signals transmit information in living organisms. These signals are oscillations, their intensity well within the range of the so-called broadband noise. Broadband noise is signals that occur in each material caused by the movement of elementary particles, molecules, and atoms. (As particle movements are dependent on temperature, the expression thermal noise is also often used.)
To date researchers assumed that signals below the noise level do not affect anything. In any case, these kinds of signals are no longer measurable using common measuring devices and receivers.
Meanwhile it is certain, however, that biological systems selectively register information even within the frequency range and far below the measuring ability of technical devices commonly used today.
Research has shown that biological information seems to have an effect only when it is that subtle!
When experimenting with cerebral cells from chicks, the American physicist W. R. Adey (1988) discovered that they only respond to a certain frequency (about 10 Hz). At the same time, the amplitude must lie within a very specific (low) range. No reactions are measurable below or above that range. This limited range (obtained from the ratio of amplitude and frequency), within which a biological system is able to respond to electromagnetic signals carrying information, is known as the Adey window.
Apparently, transmission in the so-called molecular chain conductors is possible only if the frequency and amplitude of a signal fall within this small “window.” If the amplitude of a signal is too low, it lies below the point of resonance and is ineffective. If it is too high, the protein chains will break up and the signal will be blocked (Ludwig).
The idea, intrinsic to scientific medicine, that weak signals cannot be effective when similar strong signals show no measurable results has been proven wrong.
Let us remember:
Information is neither matter nor energy. It operates in biological systems via ultra-weak electromagnetic signals and therefore plays an important part in all life processes.
Modern biophysics considers information today as “a latent, but potent causal factor inherent in molecules, cells, tissue, and the environment. It enables all these entities to recognize, select, and instruct each other, to construct each other and themselves as well as regulate, control, and determine events of any kind” (Oyama 1985).
Experts continue to debate the actual biophysical nature of biological information. The most modern and promising aspect for the future might be the concept of the morphogenetic field phenomenon. Rupert Sheldrake devised the brilliant and revolutionary thought modality of the, to date, be wildering process of how Nature uses fields to create forms. These fields have the ability to store the “knowledge” of individuals in a species. He defined a morphogenetic field as “a non-material zone of influence of physics” (Sheldrake 1990).
Sheldrake and many other physicists postulate that, besides the commonly known gravitational field that causes the force of gravity, there are a great number of other fields that structure and organize the entire universe, from subatomic particles to the farthest galaxies in some kind of hierarchical layers. Considering the latest physics research, it is acceptable to think of the cosmos as an entirely oscillating space, structured by intangible forces. The material spectrum we are used to living and operating in is just a tiny part of the whole. All of its parts are subject to these intangible forces.
All these ideas are almost inconceivable for a layperson. As previously mentioned, it is more important to accept a substantiated subject and incorporate it into one's own view of the world rather than understand it
