This highly recommended comprehensive volume is a good resource for investigators who wish to apply these techniques. It is a self-contained book in which the physics and the analytical methods are carefully worked out in detail. There is a general confounding problem when these elegant techniques are applied to living tissues: the complex assortment and location of naturally fluorescent molecules makes it difficult, without biochemical analysis of each tissue, to validate the assignment of spectroscopic properties to a specific molecule. The discussions of fluorescence, the design and use of lifetime instrumentation, the various methods to analyze the data and the biomedical applications are all current and well-illustrated. The references and the index are extensive.
Review by Barry R. Masters, Fellow of AAAS, OSA and SPIE.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.