This first volume in the new Springer Series on Fluorescence brings together fundamental and applied research from this highly interdisciplinary and field, ranging from chemistry and physics to biology and medicine. Special attention is given to supramolecular systems, sensor applications, confocal microscopy and protein-protein interactions. This carefully edited collection of articles is an invaluable tool for practitioners and novices.

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.