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Introduction

1.1

Te Fusion of Physics and Biology..................................................... 1

1.2

Te Connection between Electromagnetism and

Bioelectromagnetism ...........................................................................3

Electromagnetism • Bioelectromagnetism

1.3

Harmonization of Electromagnetic Fields with Biological

Systems ...................................................................................................9

Te Coupling of Atmospheric Electricity with Biological

Systems • Safety Aspects of Electromagnetic Fields

1.4

Applications of Electromagnetism in Medicine and Biology...... 14

Shoogo Ueno

1.5

Discussion............................................................................................ 15

1.6

Summary and Perspective................................................................. 17

Tsukasa Shigemitsu

References........................................................................................................ 18

1.1 The Fusion of Physics and Biology

Foremost, the terminology which will be used and discussed later in this chapter will be introduced.

Hans Christian Oersted showed that electricity and magnetism are two related mechanical phenomena.

To explain this, he used for the frst time the term “electromagnetism.” Aferward, Michael Faraday gave

an explanation and meaning to this phenomenon and used the term “electromagnetism” which soon

became established as a common scientifc term. Afer their fndings and discussions were published,

the scientifc knowledge in electromagnetism improved. Tis led to a better understanding of the basic

electromagnetic phenomena found in bioelectromagnetism. Electromagnetism is a part of science that

includes electricity, magnetism and electromagnetic felds phenomena. Biolectromagnetism is the study

of how electromagnetism interacts with biological processes produced by cells, tissues and organisms.

Bioelectromagnetism has been gradually developing and expanding to a variety of felds including

engineering, biomedical engineering, life science, medicine and biology. Tis book attempts to present

to the readers the various wonderful aspects and the specifc felds related to bioelectromagnetism. In

order to understand bioelectromagnetism, this introduction will provide the basic concepts and ele­

ments of electromagnetism, interaction between electromagnetic felds (natural and man-made) and

biological systems and several applications such as biomedical imaging used in medicine and biology.

Furthermore, the safety issues related to electromagnetism will be presented. Trough the discussions

in this book as well as the past and present research advances, a number of prospects for bioelectromag­

netism will be suggested by many experts in biology, medicine, biophysics, electrical engineering and

biomedical engineering.

Recently, an interesting letter written by Albert Einstein was discovered (Dyer et al., 2021). It was

written on October 18, 1949, in response to a letter from Ghyn Davys who was residing in Hampshire,

England. It is not known what was written in the letter to Einstein. However, in Einstein’s reply, he

noted Karl von Frisch’s work and said that it would open up a new direction in physics by examining the

behavior of bees, migratory birds and carrier pigeons to determine how they perceive external stimuli.

DOI: 10.1201/9781003181354-1

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