ix

Preface

This book is devoted to bioeletromagnetism. The title is Bioelectromagnetism: History, Foundations

and Applications. The idea to write this book on bioelectromagnetism dates back to 2019. At that time,

after a scientific meeting, we had talked with a few colleagues about bioelectromagnetism, its inter-

esting and difficult aspects. Our discussion spanned a variety of topics: the long research history of

bioelectromagnetism; science dates back to the publication of De Magnete by Gilbert; electro- and

magneto-therapy; Galvani’s discovery of bioelectricity; the relationship between electricity and mag-

netism; Faraday’s induction law; Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic waves; biological and health

effects; migratory birds use of geomagnetic fields; and others. At the end of our talk, it was decided to

try to organize the wonderful aspects of bioelectromagnetism. Another major motivation was that one

of the editors attended a workshop in Munich in November 2019, where he saw and heard the state-

of-the-art findings of research on the effects of electromagnetic fields in the environment on flora and

fauna. At this workshop, magnetoreception in animals and plants in the environment was also a topic

of interest. This workshop was organized by the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS)

as an international workshop, “International Workshop: Environmental effect of electric, magnetic

and electromagnetic fields: Flora and Fauna” from November 5 to 7. This workshop covered the effects

of anthropogenic fields of all frequencies on plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, possible mechanisms

of action in living systems and gaps in knowledge.

The above led us to begin discussions with the intention of publishing a book. We approached a

number of experts to make a book that would highlight various interests and the wonderful aspects of

bioelectromagnetism. Naturally, we planned to ask Prof. Maffei of the University of Turin, who gave an

interesting talk on magnetoreception in plants at a workshop in Munich.

Therefore, we decided to write this book. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group was kind enough to

help and support our venture. It is fortunate that seven chapters arrived by the deadline of manuscript

submission, although a few chapters did not arrive by the cutoff date. The manuscript that was not ready

in time is expected to be available in an online version.

Although the research in bioelectromagnetism has been gradually developing and expanding into a

variety of fields in engineering, biomedical engineering, life science, medicine and biology, this book

with seven chapters is our attempt to reveal to readers the wonderful aspects and the specific regions

related to bioelectromagnetism. In Chapter 1, it begins with general information which forms the frame-

work for the understanding of this book. It is well known that the origin of bioelectromagnetism is the

study of the relationship between electromagnetism and biological systems. It connects electricity, mag-

netism and electromagnetism with biology, medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering. Chapter 2

provides chronologically the fantastic and dramatic history of bioelectromagnetism from ancient times

to the twenty-first century. Then the relationships between atmospheric electric phenomena, geomagne-

tism and biological systems are presented in Chapter 3 for understanding the electromagnetic environ-

ment around us. The central part of the book with three chapters is devoted to the wonderful aspects

of bioelectromagnetism. It is designed to provide biological topics of current and growing interest on