The burgeoning interest in biomembranes in recent years has been such that "membranology" is now virtuMtyasubject in its own right, cutting vertically, as it were, through the strata of conventional disciplines from mathematics and physics, through chemistry, to biology. The very scope of the topic is thus so daunting that it is tempting to treat it only at one stratum of this hierarchy, be it the biophysics of phospholipid bilayers or the biochemistry of interactions at the cell surface. Such an approach is entirely valid, particularly among specialists with common interests. However, this approach does present a distorted perspective to the newcomer to the field, and, more significantly, it fails to stimulate cross fertil ization of ideas among workers at the various disciplinary levels. For example, as in all areas of molecular biology, the clinicians are frequently unaware of the contributions to their problems that might be made by the application of more basic knowledge and techniques. Conversely, biochemists or biophysicists may be ignorant of the existing practical problems to which they might address their expertise."

51 worldwide leading experts in the field of erythrocyte research contributed to this first book on transport processes in red blood cells. It explains the latest findings on the basis of well-established principles, in an accessibly structured and carefully organized compilation.

A rich variety of real-life physical problems which are still poorly understood are of a nonlinear nature. Examples include turbulence, granular flows, detonations and flame propagation, fracture dynamics, and a wealth of new biological and chemical phenomena which are being discovered. Particularly interesting among the manifestations of nonlinearity are coherent structures. This book contains reviews and contributions reporting on the state of the art regarding the role of coherent structures and patterns in nonlinear science.

Research on the chemical senses has been growing at a remarkable rate over the last decade. This growth has greatly expanded our understanding of the electrical properties and ultrastructure of chemosensory organs, of the role of chemoreception in the control of behavior, of the organization of higher centers in the chemosensory pathways, and of the chemical constituents of mixtures of biologic significance. But one area where advances have been especially impressive is concerned with the properties of pheromones and substances with similar biologic effects. Pheromones are compounds, produced by certain animals, which have the effect of inducing one or more specific responses within members of the same or closely related species. Some of these substances-the "primer" pheromones-act on the endocrine system, probably through the central nervous system. The pregnancy block induced in mice by the odor of strange males is a striking example. Others, such as "signalling" or "releaser" pheromones, elicit an immediate behavioral response. Sex attractants are prominent examples of this group. While the chemical identity of these compounds is known, in a relatively few cases (and these, mainly in insects) we now have extensive information about their impact on the receiving organism at the receptor, physiologic and behavioral levels.

oltage-gated calcium channels are essential mediators of a range of physiological functions, including the communication between nerve Vcells, the regulation of heart beat, muscle contraction, and secretion of hormones such as insulin. Consequently, these channels are critical phar macological targets in the treatment of a variety of disorders, such as epi lepsy, hypertension, and pain. Voltage-gated calcium channels have there fore been subject to intense study by numerous investigators over the past few decades, and an immense body of work has accumulated. In this book, we provide the first comprehensive overview of our current state of knowl edge concerning this exciting field of research. Leading off with a general review of calcium signaling and techniques to measure calcium channel ac tivity, the book delves into a provocative overview of the history of the cal cium channel field, contributed by one of the key pioneers in the field. Dr. Richard Tsien. This is followed by an in depth review of the biochemical and molecular biological characterization of calcium channel genes by Drs. Catterall and Snutch whose research has resulted in major advances in the calcium channel field. A number of chapters are dedicated towards various aspects of calcium channel structure and function, including channel gat ing, permeation, modulation and interactions with members of the exo- totic machinery-contributed by both established leaders and rising stars in the field.

This book demonstrates the usefulness of tools from statistical mechanics for biology. It includes the new tendencies in topics like membranes, vesicles, microtubules, molecular motors, DNA, protein folding, phase transitions in biological systems, evolution, population dynamics, neural systems and biological oscillators, with special emphasis on the importance of statistical mechanics in their development. The book addresses researchers and graduate students.

The choice of title for this collective volume reflects the desire of the editors and authors to make clear that, while the bulk of the material is concerned with luminescence, other aspects of the excited state have not been excluded. In the five years which have elapsed since the publication of the classical monograph of Konev, a wealth of new information has ap peared on the emission properties of proteins and nucleic acids. Indeed, since new publications in this area appear to be proliferating in a geometric ratio, this may be the last opportunity to provide a comprehensive summary of the field in a book which is not of prohibitive length. This is what we have attempted to do here. While the orientation of each chapter naturally reflects the interests and point of view of the author, there has been a general effort to present .a critical assessment of existing results and interpretations, rather than a compendium of data with minimal comment. Finally, it should be stressed that the rapid evolution of the subject at the time of writing makes it inevitable that the book will age to some degree over the next few years, although this will occur at differing rates for the various chapters. We can only hope that most of the material in this interim summing-up will prove resistant to the erosion of time and provide a solid foundation for further progress."

The 30th scientific meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) was held at the Western Conference Centre, UMIST, Manchester, in August 2002. It was attended by some 96 delegates and accompanying persons and there were 128 presentations.

This new definitive volume on fish auditory systems will interest investigators in both basic research of fish bioacoustics as well as investigators in applied aspects of fisheries and resource management. Topics cover structure, physiology, localization, and acoustic behavior as well as more applied topics such as using sound to detect and locate fish.

This book contains a selection of communications presented at the Third International Meeting on Fully Three-Dimensional Image Reconstruction in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, held 4-6 July 1995 at Domaine d' Aix-Marlioz, Aix-Ies-Bains, France. This nice resort provided an inspiring environment to hold discussions and presentations on new and developing issues. Roentgen discovered X-ray radiation in 1895 and Becquerel found natural radioactivity in 1896 : a hundred years later, this conference was focused on the applications of such radiations to explore the human body. If the physics is now fully understood, 3D imaging techniques based on ionising radiations are still progressing. These techniques include 3D Radiology, 3D X-ray Computed Tomography (3D-CT), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Radiology is dedicated to morphological imaging, using transmitted radiations from an external X-ray source, and nuclear medicine to functional imaging, using radiations emitted from an internal radioactive tracer. In both cases, new 3D tomographic systems will tend to use 2D detectors in order to improve the radiation detection efficiency. Taking a set of 2D acquisitions around the patient, 3D acquisitions are obtained. Then, fully 3D image reconstruction algorithms are required to recover the 3D image of the body from these projection measurements.

At the end of the 20th century, a tremendous progress was made in biotechnology in its widest sense. This progress was largely possible as a result of joint efforts of top academic researchers in both pure fundamental sciences and applied research. The surplus value of such interdisciplinary approaches was clearly highlighted during the 9th European Congress on Biotechnology that was held in Brussels, Belgium (11-15 July, 1999). The present volume in the 'Focus on Biotechnology' series, entiteld 'Physics and Chemistry Basis for Biotechnology' contains selected presentations from this meeting, A collection of experts has made serious efforts to present some of the latest developments in various scientific fields and to unveil prospective evolutions on the threshold of the new millenium. In all contributions the emphasis is on emerging new areas of research in which physicochemical principles form the foundation. In reading the different chapters, it appears that more than ever significant advances in biotechnology very often depend on breakthroughs in the biotechnology itself (e.g.

Topics include the theory of atom tunneling reactions, conclusive evidence and controlling factors for such reactions in solid hydrogen, tunneling dislocation motion, coherent tunneling diffusion, the production of interstellar molecules and semiconductors using tunneling reactions, the effect of atom tunneling on molecular structure and crystalline structure, the suppression of mutation and cancer by an atom tunneling reaction of vitamin C, and atom tunneling reactions of vitamin E and of enzymes.

The current interest in developing novel materials has motivated an increasing need for biological and medical studies in a variety of dinical applications. Indeed, it is dear that to achieve the requisite mechanical, chemical and biomedical properties, especially for new bioactive materials, it is necessary to develop novel synthesis routes. The tremendous success of materials science in developing new biomaterials and fostering technological innovation arises from its focus on interdisciplinary research and collaboration between materials and medical sciences. Materials scientists seek to relate one natural phenomenon to the basic structures of the materials and to recognize the causes and effects of the phenomena. In this way, they have developed explanations for the changing of the properties, the reactions of the materials to the environment, the interface behaviors between the artificial materials and human tissue, the time effects on the materials, and many other natural occurrences. By the same means, medical scientists have also studied the biological and medical effects of these materials, and generated the knowledge needed to produce useful medical devices. The concept of biomaterials is one of the most important ideas ever generated by the application of materials science to the medical field. In traditional materials research, interest focuses primarilyon the synthesis , structure, and mechanical properties of materials commonly used for structural purposes in industry, for instance in mechanical parts of machinery.

Cognition and artificial intelligence are entering a new era in which the aspects of symbolic manipulation and of connectionism begin to come together. This leads to a dialog of truly interdisciplinary character. The book covers aspects of fuzzy logic, case based reasoning, learning as well as meaning, language, and consciousness. The authors of this topical volume have their background in logic, computer science, physics and mathematics, philosophy, psychology and neurobiology.

Photonics of biopolymers discusses the processes of energy transformation in photoexcited proteins, nucleic acids, membranes and model systems. The author addresses, among other topics: Light absorption, screening and reabsorption; photometric studies of protein; energy transfer mechanics; fluorescent probes; photomodulation of enzymes, and photoactiviation. Much of the information stems from the author's own wide experience in the field.

This textbook provides an introduction to dynamic modeling in cell biology, emphasizing computational approaches based on realistic molecular mechanisms. It is designed to introduce cell biology and neuroscience students to computational modeling, and applied mathematics students, theoretical biologists, and engineers to many of the problems in dynamical cell biology. This volume was conceived of and begun by Professor Joel Keizer based on his many years of teaching and research together with his colleagues. The project was expanded and finished by his students and friends after his untimely death in 1999. Carefully selected examples are used to motivate the concepts and techniques of computational cell biology, through a progression of increasingly more complex and demanding cases. Illustrative exercises are included with every chapter, and mathematical and computational appendices are provided for reference. This textbook will be useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate theoretical biologists, and for mathematics students and life scientists who wish to learn about modeling in cell biology. Royalties from this book will be donated to the Joel E. Keizer memorial endowment for collaborative interdisciplinary research in the life sciences.

The annual research conference for 1996 of the American Institute for Cancer Re search was again held at the Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC, August 29 and 30. The topic for this, the seventh in the series, was "Dietary Fat and Cancer: Genetic and Molecular Mechanisms. " Two separate presentations were given as the conference overview. "Fat and Cancer: The Epidemiologic Evidence in Perspective" noted that die tary fat can be saturated, largely from animal or dairy sources, or mono- or polyunsatu rated, mostly from plant sources. Unlike animal fats, fish contain relatively high levels of protective omega-3 fatty acids. Although the hypothesis that dietary fat is associated with cancer is plausible, the mechanisms involved are reasonable, and many animal studies support the hypothesis, there are many obstacles in any direct extrapolation to humans, in cluding imprecise measures of dietary fat intake, variability in individual diets, and spe cies variations. Despite these limitations, there is a weak positive correlation between colon cancer and dietary fat intake, but with substantial differences for various ethnic groups. In the case of breast cancer, there is substantial variation among countries and eth nic groups, but the overall evidence indicated an association with fat in the diet. Epidemiologic studies of dietary fat and prostate cancer are more consistent and most show a positive relationship. However, it was not clear which types of dietary fat were im plicated in the effect."

By employing a combination of approaches from several disciplines the authors elucidate the principles of a variety of biomechanical systems that rely on frictional surfaces or adhesive secretions to attach parts of the body to one another or to attach organisms to a substrate. This account provides an excellent starting point for engineers and physicists working with biological systems and for biologists studying friction and adhesion. It will also serve as a valuable introduction for graduate students entering this interdisciplinary field of research.

This book is concerned with the physical aspects of molecular and electronic tunneling in biological systems, and the extent to which protein structure controls these events. The scope is very broad and this volume could almost be a textbook in biophysics. Both fundamental processes and the extrapolation to physiological events are stressed. The discussion sections are remarkably frank and offer insight into the basic problems confronting physists and chemists as they seek to apply their techniques to biological systems. This book on the physics of biomolecules reflects recent progress in understanding the biological function of the key protein molecules from detailed knowledge of their physics. New and exciting are the glasslike aspects of protein structures and the discussion of proteins as fractals. Other topics dealt with are low-temperature kinetics and reactivity, structure and charge exchange, and charge separation in photosynthetic reaction centers.

The discovery of uniform latex particles by polymer chemists of the Dow Chemical Company nearly 50 years ago opened up new exciting fields for scientists and physicians and established many new biomedical applications. Many in vitro diagnostic tests such as the latex agglutination tests, analytical cell and phagocytosis tests have since become rou tine. They were all developed on the basis of small particles bound to biological active molecules and fluorescent and radioactive markers. Further developments are ongoing, with the focus now shifted to applications of polymer particles in the controlled and di rected transport of drugs in living systems. Four important factors make microspheres interesting for in vivo applications: First, biocompatible polymer particles can be used to transport known amounts of drug and re lease them in a controlled fashion. Second, particles can be made of materials which bio degrade in living organisms without doing any harm. Third, particles with modified surfaces are able to avoid rapid capture by the reticuloendothelial system and therefore en hance their blood circulation time. Fourth, combining particles with specific molecules may allow organ-directed targeting."

It is now well established that all living systems emit a weak but permanent photon flux in the visible and ultraviolet range. This biophoton emission is correlated with many, if not all, biological and physiological functions. There are indications of a hitherto-overlooked information channel within the living system. Biophotons may trigger chemical reactivity in cells, growth control, differentiation and intercellular communication, i.e. biological rhythms. The basic experimental and theoretical framework, the technical problems and the wide field of applications in the food industry, medicine, pharmacology, environmental science and basic sciences are presented in this book, which also includes the rapidly growing literature. This book is written by the most outstanding international scientists familiar with this topic who have been working in this field for many years.

The application to Biology of the methodologies developed in Physics is attracting an increasing interest from the scientific community. It has led to the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field, called Physical Biology, with the aim of reaching a better understanding of the biological mechanisms at molecular and cellular levels. Statistical Mechanics in particular plays an important role in the development of this new field.

For this reason, the XXth session of the famous Sitges Conference on Statistical Physics was dedicated to "Physical Biology: from Molecular Interactions to Cellular Behavior." As is by now tradition, a number of lectures were subsequently selected, expanded and updated for publication as lecture notes, so as to provide both a state-of-the-art introduction and overview to a number of subjects of broader interest and to favor the interchange and cross-fertilization of ideas between biologists and physicists.

The present volume focuses on three main subtopics (biological water, protein solutions as well as transport and replication), presenting for each of them the on-going debates on recent results. The role of water in biological processes, the mechanisms of protein folding, the phases and cooperative effects in biological solutions, the thermodynamic description of replication, transport and neural activity, all are subjects that are revised in this volume, based on new experiments and new theoretical interpretations.

Volume One of this two-volume sequence focuses on the basic characterization of known protein structures, and structure prediction from protein sequence information. Eleven chapters survey of the field, covering key topics in modeling, force fields, classification, computational methods, and structure prediction. Each chapter is a self contained review covering definition of the problem and historical perspective; mathematical formulation; computational methods and algorithms; performance results; existing software; strengths, pitfalls, challenges, and future research.

''Excellent and very timely....It will undoubtedly become a standard reference for the application of circular dichroism (CD) to biomolecules.'' "--- Quarterly Review of Biology," March 1997 '' T]estament to the book's utility is the fact that during the course of my review I had to 'rescue' it from the desks of graduate students on an almost daily basis. In summary, this is a great book.'' "--- American Scientist" ''Well documented chapters provide a very good insight into the problems surrounding the conformation of biomacromolecules...An indispensible source of information.'' "--- Nahrung," 42(2), 1998 Renowned experts present the first state-of-the-art description of circular dichroism spectroscopy (CD). Chapters present in-depth discussions of the history of the field, the theory of CD for application to globular proteins, membrane proteins, peptides, nucleic acids and their interactions, carbohydrates, and instrumentation. Discussions also feature new techniques using synchrotron radiation, vibrational Raman optical activity, and vibrational CD. More than 250 illustrations supplement the text.

Application of polymers from renewable resources - also identified as biopolymers - has a large potential market due to the current emphasis on sustainable technology. For optimal R&D achievements and hence benefits from these market opportunities, it is essential to combine the expertise available in the vast range ofdifferent disciplines in biopolymer science and technology. The International Centre of Biopolymer Technology - ICBT - has been created with support from the European Commission to facilitate co operation and the exchange of scientific knowledge between industries, universities and other research groups. One of the activities to reach these objectives, is the organisation ofa conference on Biopolymer Technology. In September 1999, the first international conference on Biopolymer Technology was held in Coimbra, Portugal. Because of its success - both scientifically and socially - and because ofthe many contacts that resulted in exchange missions or other ICBT activities, it was concluded that a second conference on Biopolymer Technology was justified. This second conference was held in Ischia, Italy in October 2000. And again, the scientific programme contained a broad spectrum ofpresentations in a range of fields such as biopolymer synthesis, modification, technology, applications, material testing and analytical methods."