At a meeting of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Physiology in 1984 in Strasbourg the idea of having a special meeting on inorganic nitrogen metabolism on a more or less European level was born. Originally it was planned to limit its content to the inorganic nitrogen metabolism of eukary otic algae and cyanobacteria, but later the Organizing Committee decided to widen the scope of the meeting. Thus, what resulted was a Symposium, or rather an Advanced Course, on Inorganic Nitrogen Metabolism, including, in addition to algal biochemistry and physiology, some coverage of nitrogen...