The volume brings together the lectures given during the 1999 session of the School of Pure and Applied Biophysics, which has been jointly organised in Venice since 1997 by three Italian scientific bodies: the Venetian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, IVSLA (Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti), the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics, SIBPA (Società Italiana di Biofisica Pura ed Applicata) and by the biophysical section of the Italian Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, INFM (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia). The school promotes in-depth exploration of biophysical topics selected from the area of contemporary research. The subjects selected are exposed to the attention of young researchers attentive to themes of frontier knowledge which are considered of relevant scientific and educational impact. The topic selected for the 1999 school concerns a number of different spectroscopic tools, both experimental and computational, frequently encountered in biophysical research. The chapters of the book have been compiled from the lecture notes distributed among the participants at the school. The authors are acknowledged specialists in the respective field.
