This first volume in the new Fluorescence Spectroscopy series brings togehter fundamental and applied research from this highly interdisciplinary field ranging from chemistry and physics to biology and medicine.

1 Historical Aspects of Fluorescence.- 1 Introduction: On the Origin of the Terms Fluorescence, Phosphorescence, and Luminescence.- 2 Pioneering Contributions of Jean and Francis Perrin to Molecular Luminescence.- 3 The Seminal Contributions of Gregorio Weber to Modern Fluorescence Spectroscopy.- 2 Fluorescence of Molecular and Supramolecular Systems.- 4 Investigation of Femtosecond Chemical Reactivity by Means of Fluorescence Up-Conversion.- 5 Spectroscopic Investigations of Intermolecular Interactions in Supercritical Fluids.- 6 Space and Time Resolved Spectroscopy of Two-Dimensional Molecular Assemblies.- 7 From Cyanines to Styryl Bases - Photophysical Properties, Photochemical Mechanisms, and Cation Sensing Abilities of Charged and Neutral Polymethinic Dyes.- 8 Phototunable Metal Cation Binding Ability of Some Fluorescent Macrocydic Ditopic Receptors.- 3 Fluorescence in Sensing Applications.- 9 The Design of Molecular Artificial Sugar Sensing Systems.- 10 PCT (Photoinduced Charge Transfer) Fluorescent Molecular Sensors for Cation Recognition.- 11 Fluorometric Detection of Anion Activity and Temperature Changes.- 12 Oxygen Diffusion in Polymer Films for Luminescence Barometry Applications.- 13 Dual Lifetime Referencing (DLR) - a New Scheme for Converting Fluorescence Intensity into a Frequency- Domain or Time-Domain Information.- 4 New Techniques of Fluorescence Microscopy in Biology.- 14 Two-Photon Fluorescence Fluctuation Spectroscopy.- 15 Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy of Signal Transduction Protein Reactions in Cells.- 16 New Techniques for DNA Sequencing Based on Diode Laser Excitation and Time-Resolved Fluorescence Detection.- 17 The Integration of Single Molecule Detection Technologies into Miniaturized Drug Screening: Current Status and FuturePerspectives.- 18 Picosecond Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Spectroscopy as a New Tool for 3D Structure Determination of Macromolecules in Living Cells.- 5 Proteins and Their Interactions as Studied by Fluorescence Methods.- 19 About the Prediction of Tryptophan Fluorescence Lifetimes and the Analysis of Fluorescence Changes in Multi-Tryptophan Proteins.- 20 Application of Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy to Studies of DNA-Protein Interactions and RNA Folding.- 21 Rare Earth Cryptates and TRACE Technology as Tools for Probing Molecular Interactions in Biology.- 22 Tracking Molecular Dynamics of Flavoproteins with Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy.