Recent Trends in Biofilm Science and Technology helps researchers working on fundamental aspects of biofilm formation and control conduct biofilm studies and interpret results. The book provides a remarkable amount of knowledge on the processes that regulate biofilm formation, the methods used, monitoring characterization and mathematical modeling, the problems/advantages caused by their presence in the food industry, environment and medical fields, and the current and emergent strategies for their control. Research on biofilms has progressed rapidly in the last decade due to the fact that biofilms have required the development of new analytical tools and new collaborations between biologists, engineers and mathematicians.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

It is a natural tendency of micro-organisms to attach to surfaces, to multiply and to embed themselves in a slimy matrix, resulting in biofilms. Biofilms constitute a protected growth modality that allows the micro-organisms to survive in hostile environments. Biofilm science is a relatively new technical discipline, which has emerged in response to the need of methodologies for biofilm control. Biofilms represent an interdisciplinary research area focused on the understanding and modulating of the combination of biological and chemical reactions, as well as in transport and interfacial transfer processes, that potentially affect the microbial accumulation and activity on abiotic and biotic surfaces. Research on biofilms has progressed rapidly in the last decade. Due to the fact that biofilms have required the development of new analytical tools, many recent advances have resulted from collaborations between biologists, engineers and mathematicians. The scientific community has come to understand many things about the particular biology of microbial biofilms through a variety of microscopic, physical, chemical, and molecular techniques of study. This book provides a remarkable amount of knowledge on the processes that regulate biofilm formation; on the methods used for their formation, monitoring, characterisation and mathematical modelling; on the problems caused by their presence in the food industry, environment and medical fields; and describes the current and emergent strategies for their control. The information in this book is designed to be of use to researchers and engineers working on fundamental aspects of biofilm formation and control and also to be helpful in conducting biofilm studies and in the consistent interpretation of results.