It is well known that basic science can trigger an invention of considerable technological and commercial importance. Indeed basic science and invention are often inextricably linked, each being able to catalyse the other. To engender such developments it is important that there should be good communication between the scientist and the technologist. The field of membrane biotechnology is a growing field where such communication is increasingly taking place and where new inventions are occurring. This book provides an overview of this developing field. It contains chapters by scientist and...

This book, prepared by participants of the European network COST ACTION 810 (1989-93) is the outcome of a meeting held in Switzerland (Einsiedeln, September 29 to October 2, 1993) on the "Impact of arbuscular mycorrhizas on sustainable agriculture and natural ecosystems." COST(Cooperation Scientifique et Technique) Networks were created in 1971 by the Commission of European Communities, and later enlarged to include non-European Member States, to promote pre-competitive scientific and technical research in fields of common interest. During the eighties, COST ACTIONS were launched in bio-...

The Proceedings of the Fourth International Metallothionein Meeting (MT-97) feature the latest research on metallothionein. The book covers a broad range of topics which provide important information for both basic and clinical investigators. The selected 94 articles in this book are written by the leading scientists in the field around the world. This is an increasingly important, multi-disciplinary area of study that has benefitted from recent advances in concepts and methodologies from other fields.

Donald Kennedy President, Stanjord University Alnwst exactly a dozen years elapsed between the time I set aside (I thought temporarily J my own interest in crustacean nervous systems and the arrival of an invitation from Konrad Wiese to participate in this symposium. The intervening years have plainly been productive ones for the field; indeed, I can only hope that there is no causal connection between its properity and my absence. Discontinuous contact with an intellectual venture, whatever disappointments it may present. does oifer one virtue; it provides a nwre dramatic. alnwst...

The ecent Vitamin Be-Meeting in Tu ku, FinLand, has continued a Long-standing t1'O.dition; it ws the seventh intemationaL congNss devoted to the "ChemicaL and BioLogicaL Aspects of Vitamin Be-Cata- Lysis." The fi st meeting ws heLd 1962 in Rome foUo1JJed by the meetings in Moscow (1966), Nagoya (1967), Lening1'O.d (1974), To onto (1979), and Athens (1983). The p oceedings of a meeting p ovide a "snapshot" of a pa ticuLa fieLd of science. Not unLike the photog phic p oduct they affo d a topicaL eco of the goings-on, at pe haps the expense of some inforrmation on detaUs. These Proceedings focus...

The Second International CBT (Center for Biotechnology) Synposium was held in Stockholm November 4-5 1988 and had the title "The steroid/thyroid hoITIDne receptor family and gene regulation". This meeting contained contributions from most leading laboratories within the field of steroid/thyroid hOITIDne receptors and gave a very exciting perspective on the dynamic development of this i:ntx>rt. ant research field. Today all known steroid hoITIDne receptors have been cloned and sequenced and novel members of this supergene family are constantly being discovered. Sane of these new receptors...

Methods in protein sequence analysis constitute important fields in rapid progress. We have experienced a continuous increase in analytical sensitivity coupled with decreases in time necessary for purification and analysis. Several generations of sequencers, liquid/solid/gas-phase, have passed by and returned in other shapes during just over two decades. Similarly, the introduction of HPLC permitted an enormous leap forward in this as in other fields of biochemistry, and we now start to see new major advances in purification/analysis through capillary electrophoresis. Furthermore, progress in...