2026-10-06 Journal of Biomedical Photonics & Engineering (jbpe.ssau.ru) - Rahn-Otto
Article: E. V. Naumova, A. E. Naumova, D. A. Isaev, I. V. Volodyaev (2018) "Historical review of early researches on mitogenetic radiation: from discovery to cancer diagnostics", JBPE 4(4):040201, doi:10.18287/JBPE18.04.040201, CC-BY 4.0. [web] https://jbpe.ssau.ru/index.php/JBPE/article/view/3308 Read: abstract and full reference list (about 190 references). PDF not downloaded (needs owner approval); it is open access.
Abstract (summary) [web]: reviews experiments from 1923 to 1948 on weak UV chemiluminescence of biological objects and its effect on mitosis. It reports "very promising results", including a peptide tumour marker in blood called the "cancer quencher" because it quenched blood UV chemiluminescence. It says the research was later "interrupted and almost abandoned".
Records this gives, by priority
- Inventor's own work (Rahn), not in the project folder: - O. Rahn (1934) "The physico-chemical basis of biological radiations", Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 2:226-240 - O. Rahn (1937) "Mitogenetic radiation", Tabulae Biologicae 14:1-35 (a later Rahn review, after the book) - J. B. Tuthill, O. Rahn (1934) "Analysis of the bud formation of the Baron method", Archive of Biological Sciences Ser. B 35(1):289-296 - J. B. Tuthill, O. Rahn (1933) Archiv für Mikrobiologie 4:565-573; A. J. Ferguson, O. Rahn (1933) Archiv für Mikrobiologie 4:574-582 (both cited in the book) - O. Rahn (1934) J. Bacteriol. 28:153-158 (see pmc note)
- Support and tests by others: - Gurwitsch school, later: A. G. and L. D. Gurwitsch, "Ultra-Violet Chemi-Luminescence", Nature 143:1022 (1939); Introduction to the teaching of mitogenesis (1948); The teaching of the cancer quencher (1947); B. S. Pesochensky, doctoral dissertation on blood-radiation quenching in cancer (Leningrad Oncological Institute, 1942); E. E. Avchina, dissertation (1950); L. I. Sneshko, dissertation (1955). These bear on claim 5 (blood test for cancer) and show the Soviet work went on to about 1955. - Physical detection: Frank and Rodionow (1931, 1932, 1934); Rajewsky (1930, 1931); Siebert and Seffert (1933, 1934); Barth (1934); Glasser and Barth, Radiology 30:62-67 (1938); Grebe, Krost and Peukert, Strahlentherapie 60:538-571 (1938); E. Lorenz, J. Gen. Physiol. 17:843-862 (1934); Audubert, Angewandte Chemie 51:153 (1938) on emission from chemical reactions (claim 2). - Negative or critical: Taylor and Harvey, Biol. Bull. 61:280-293 (1931); A. Hollaender, "The problem of mitogenetic rays", in Duggar (ed.) Biological effects of radiation (1936) pp. 919-958; Hollaender and Claus, NRC Bulletin 100 (1937); Nakaidzumi and Schreiber (1931); Kreuchen and Bateman, Protoplasma 22 (1932); Quickenden et al., Radiation Research 117:145-157 (1989), "An attempt to stimulate cell division in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with weak ultraviolet light". - Later photon measurements: Colli and Facchini, Nuovo Cimento (1954); Vladimirov, Tarusov (1950s-70s); Quickenden and Que Hee, BBRC 60:764 (1974) "Weak luminescence from the yeast ... and the existence of mitogenetic radiation"; Metcalf and Quickenden, Nature 216:169 (1967); Wainwright et al., Microbiology 143:1-3 (1997) "Partial evidence for the existence of mitogenetic radiation".
- Related work: Stempell, Die unsichtbare Strahlung der Lebewesen (1932) (a German book with almost the same title as Rahn's); Reiter and Gabor (1928, Siemens); F. A. Popp biophotons (1976 on); Beloussov, Burlakov, Voeikov, Trushin, Fels (2009), Albrecht-Buehler (1992), Farhadi (2007), Cifra and Pospisil reviews (2014). Bears on claims 1, 2 and 6 (cell-to-cell light signalling).
- Historical record: shows that the subject continued in the USSR (dissertations to 1955; A. A. Gurwitsch books 1968, 1974) after it was abandoned in the West after about 1937. This is the "record goes silent" point to analyse: Western silence after Hollaender and Claus versus continuing Soviet work.