Handbook of Biomedical Optics

xi

Preface

ere has been tremendous progress in medicine and biol-

ogy over the past few decades. During this time, we have wit-

nessed previously unimaginable advances in the understanding

of human biology and physiology. One notable example is the

human genome project, which has opened up new insights into

disease diagnosis and therapy. Science and engineering have

been instrumental in harnessing this new knowledge into clini-

cally practical solutions. Within the eld of medical imaging,

the use of light plays an increasingly important role to reveal

functional, structural, and molecular information nondestruc-

tively; also, interes