The idea for this book came out of the EURESCO Conference on High Performance Fibers: Euroconference on Fiber Fracture in 2000. Many of the books that are currently available look at different aspects of fiber processing, properties, or applications, but none are focussed on the fracture behaviour of fibers. This book presents the mechancisms and models of fiber fracture currently available for both natural and synthetic fibers, and it is expected that increasingly there will be cross fertilization between the fields, opening new frontiers in academic research and more competitive products for industry. It covers the following areas of fiber fracture: ceramic fibers; glass fibers; carbon filters; metallic fibers and thin wires; polymeric fibers; and carbon nanotubes.

Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez Ae Frans J. M. Rietmeijer Ae Jordi Llorca Ae Diego Janches Originally published in the journal Earth, Moon, and Planets, Volume 102, Nos 1-4. DOI: 10. 1007/s11038-008-9228-0 Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 This volume is a compilation of articles that summarize the most recent results in meteor, meteoroid and related ?elds presented at the Meteoroids 2007 conference held in the impressive CosmoCaixa Science Museum in Barcelona, Spain. The conference took place between 11 and 15 of June and was organized by the Institute of Space Sciences (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient?'?cas, CSIC) and the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). Researchers in meteor science and supporting ?elds representing more than 20 countries participated at this international conference where 126 presentations were delivered in oral and poster forms. The 69 papers included in this volume represent the work of 154 authors from about 70 different institutions across the globe. The Me- oroids conference is an international meeting that takes place every 3 years since the ?rst one held in Bratislava, Slovakia in 1994. The 2007 meeting was the ?rst one where samples of a comet, 81P/Wild 2, were available from the NASA Stardust mission, and results from laboratory characterizations were presented and discussed. Seemingly aware of the upcoming meeting a bolide was observed over La Mancha, Spain, on May 10.