Nonl inear ideas of a "sol iton" variety have been a unifying influence on the na tura 1 sci ences for many decades. HO~/ever, thei r uni versa 1 a pprec i at i on in the physics community as a genuine paradigm is very much a current develop- ment. All of us who have been associated with this recent wave of enthusiasm were impressed with the variety of applications, their inevitability once the mental contraint of linear normal modes is removed, and above all by the common mathematical structures underpinning applications with quite different (and often novel) physical manifestations. This...