In 1988 the Mossbauer effect community completed 30 years of continual contribution to the fields of nuclear physics, solid state science, and a variety of related disciplines. To celebrate this anniversary, Professor Gonser of the Universitat des Saarlandes has contributed a chapter to this volume on the history of the effect. Although Mossbauer spectroscopy has reached its mature years, the chapters in this volume illustrate that it is still a dynamic field of science with applications to topics ranging from permanent magnets to biologi- cal mineralization. During the discussion of a...