F. Kreuzer - Böcker

Molecular transport of substances in the presence or absence of membranes is an ubiquitous phenomenon. Research workers from various disciplines in the biological and phys- ical sciences are actively pursuing problems of transport. One of the important questions arising in numerous biological transport situations concerns the differentiation between passive and active transport. The latter is a more complex phenomenon involving metabolic processes, and the economy of thinking requires that attempts to explain any transport pro- cess from passive mechanisms should be carried as far as pos- sible before invoking more complex mechanisms. A precise de- finition and circumscription of passive transport processes is of crucial importance. The symposium on "Passive permea- bility of cell membranes" was therefore devoted to these pas- sive transport processes and this book presents the proceed- ings of the conference. This symposium, a satellite symposium of the XXV Inter- national Congress of Physiological Sciences at Munich, Ger- many, on July 25-31, 1971, was organized by the Department of Physiology, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Nether- lands.It was held at the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam on July 20-22, 1971. The meeting was made possible by generous fi- nancial support from the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs en Wetenschappenl and from Boehringer Mannheim N. V. , Ciba N. V. , Essex (Nederland) N. V. , Gist-Brocades N. V. , Hoffmann - La Roche N. V. , Merck, Sharp and Dohme Nederland N. V. , N. V. Philips, and Unilever N.

Since there are many different tissues and organs in the body, a study of oxygen transport to tissue necessarily involves a great diversity of bodily functions. Furthermore, these tissue functions can be approached from the viewpoint of several disciplines. Even­ tually, however, all of these approaches must be combined to arrive at a comprehensive picture. This multidisciplinary effort, though imperative, has been implemented slowly because traditional biologi­ cal science has been largely organ- or discipline oriented. Initia­ tives to realize an effective international multidisciplinary collab­ oration have assumed increasing momentum for the past 20 years. These include meetings held in Bad Oeynhausen in 1965 (book in 1968, edited by D. W. Lubbers, U. C. Luft, G. Thews and E. Witzleb), in Nijmegen in 1968 (book in 1969, edited by F. Kreuzer), in Vancouver in 1970 (J. Strauss), and in Dortmund in 1971; this last was in connection with the 25th International Physiological Congress in Munich (book in 1973, edited by M. Kessler, D. F. Bruley, L. C. Clark, Jr. , D. W. Lubbers, I. A. Silver and J. Strauss). This increasing international cooperation called for a more formal organization of these individual initiatives. The credit for taking this decisive step goes to H. I. Bicher and D. F. Bruley from the U. S. A. and D. W. Lubbers and M. Kessler from Germany, who got together in 1972 to plan a large-scale inter­ national meeting and to organize an international society.