In studying contemporary transformations of social relations and family life, researchers and social theorists have been focused on the increased diversity of forms of bonding, coupling and other interpersonal connections. When single people are discussed, either it is to emphasize the disintegration of their ties and the crisis of the family, or their single life is considered as an identity choice. The aim of this text is to look at the experience of singleness not by choice among contemporary corporate employees in Poland and to try to set this experience against the background of a broader social reality, especially the reality of professional work. The text also examines the relationship between relational forms (including being single) and the social system in late capitalism. The experiences of people who are not single by choice are discussed and contrasting variants for people whose single situation is associated with low interpersonal skills and for those with an interactional proficiency are distinguished. In the conclusion, the authors are looking for patterns of connection between being unwillingly single and operating on the late capitalist labour market.

Principles of bioluminescence have been described as well as some examples of the biotests that utilize natural bacterial luminescence for assessment of the effects of environment contamination and remediation have been reviewed. The achievements of the last eight years and a new outlook on using rapid biotests for waters, wastewaters, sediments and soils toxicity investigations have been taken into account.

The paper presents findings of a research project aimed at a reconstruction of the dynamics of biographical experiences of some of those categories of the Polish society’s members whose educational and professional careers have been shaped by the systemic transformation after 1989. The text is an attempt to delineate analytical guidelines for grasping how some components of three types of social order, conceived in terms of premodernity, modernity and postmodernity, interpenetrating each other in the contemporary life of the society, impact its members’ biographical experiences on the level of work, social ties and identity.