Once Nietzsche said that human beings may be divided into two categories: Apollonians and Dionysians*. By this the philosopher meant that there are human beings a) who know what they are going to do in the long-term future (what we now call the grant application for the next 5 years), i. e. , Apollonians, and b) who barely know what they are going to do tomorrow morning before breakfast, i. e. , Dionysians. ** To organize a symposium, this symposium in particular, a committee had to be formed either of individuals sharing both Nietzschean characteristics or of individuals possessing either characteristic. Considering the rarity of the former type of subject, this organizing committee was spontaneously formed by a typical sample of both types of individuals. We first met in Perugia in 1988. Those of us who were Apollonians had thus a chance to organize a programme. The Dionysians knew what was going to happen to them, but, of course, did not know yet how to cope with it. They duly did so every day of the meeting, after breakfast. The organizers decided that it would be a useful exercise to assemble experts having different perspectives but all pursuing a very rapidly developing aspect of cell biology. They also hoped that these selected Apollonians and Dionysians would not merely recount their results but try to project the future through active interchanges of ideas and opinions with other attendees.

This book presents the proceedings of the 2nd meeting on "Enzymes of Lipid Metabolism" which took place in Strasbourg in October, 1985. It is a sequel to the first conference bearing this title which took place, also in the vicinity of Strasbourg, in March, 1977. In either case the meetings were coorganized by L. Freysz of Strasbourg, France and S. Gatt of Jerusalem, Israel. The present meeting was set up as a joint NATO Advanced Research Workshop and CNRS-INSERM International Symposium. The conference was guided by two principles, namely, that science has no bounderies, neither has the study of lipid metabolism. Participants came from Europe, the USA, Israel and Japan and represented areas of research in lipid metabolism involving fatty acid s, cholesterylesters, glycero-and sphingolipids. The experimental approaches utilized purified enzymes, artificial and biological membranes, as well as a variety of cells, primary or cultured lines. A session was also devoted to modification of lipid enzymes and metabolism resulting from inherited, inborn defects such as the lipid storage diseases which are caused by genetic modification of degradative enzymes of lipid metabolism. A second type of disease stemming from a defect in a cell organnel (ie, the peroxisome) was also discussed. The eight and one and a half years which elapsed since the previous meeting, highlighted the changing emphasis of research in. lipid metabolism.