Introductory Lecture: Molecular Dynamics of Single Molecules -- How Biomolecular Motors Work: Synergy Between Single Molecule Experiments and Single Molecule Simulations -- Detection of Single Molecules and Single Molecule Processes -- Single-Molecule Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging: From Early Steps to Recent Advances -- Single Molecules as Optical Probes for Structure and Dynamics -- FCS and Single Molecule Spectroscopy -- Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy -- Single Molecule Spectroscopy Illuminating the Molecular Dynamics of Life -- Chemical Fluxes in Cellular Steady States Measured by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy -- In Vivo Fluorescence Correlation and Cross-Correlation Spectroscopy -- Fluorescence Flicker as a Read-out in FCS: Principles, Applications and Further Developments -- Quantum Dots and Single Molecule Behaviour -- Development of Nanocrystal Molecules for Plasmon Rulers and Single Molecule Biological Imaging -- Size-Minimized Quantum Dots for Molecular and Cellular Imaging -- Mapping Transcription Factors on Extended DNA: A Single Molecule Approach -- Molecular Motion of Contractile Elements and Polymer Formation -- Single Molecule Measurement, a Tool for Exploring the Dynamic Mechanism of Biomolecules -- Viral DNA Packaging: One Step at a Time -- Chemo-Mechanical Coupling in the Rotary Molecular Motor F-ATPase -- Force and Multiparameter Spectroscopy on Functional Active Proteins -- Mechanoenzymatics and Nanoassembly of Single Molecules -- Single Cell Physiology -- Force-Clamp Spectroscopy of Single Proteins -- Unraveling the Secrets of Bacterial Adhesion Organelles Using Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy -- Nanoscale Microscopy and High Resolution Imaging -- Far-Field Optical Nanoscopy -- Sub-Diffraction-Limit Imaging with Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy -- Assessing Biological Samples with Scanning Probes -- Single Molecule Microscopy in Individual Cells -- Enzymology and Life at the Single Molecule Level -- Controlling Chemistry in Dynamic Nanoscale Systems -- Catalysis of Single Enzyme Molecules -- Single-Molecule Protein Conformational Dynamics in Enzymatic Reactions -- Watching Individual Enzymes at Work -- The Influence of Symmetry on the Electronic Structure of the Photosynthetic Pigment-Protein Complexes from Purple Bacteria -- New Fields and Outlook -- Exploring Nanostructured Systems with Single-Molecule Probes: From Nanoporous Materials to Living Cells -- Gene Regulation: Single-Molecule Chemical Physics in a Natural Context.

Written by the leading experts in the field, this book describes the development and current state-of-the-art in single molecule spectroscopy. The application of this technique, which started 1989, in physics, chemistry and biosciences is displayed.