Ellinger Y., Defranceschi M. (eds.) Strategies and applications in quantum chemistry (Kluwer, 200

STRATEGIES AND APPLICATIONS IN QUANTUM CHEMISTRY

©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Introduction to the Series

The Series ‘Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering’ was initiated by the Symposium ‘Molecules in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology’, which was held in Paris in 1986. Appropriately dedicated to Professor Raymond Daudel, the symposium was both broad in its scope and penetrating in its detail. The sections of the symposium were: 1. The Concept of a Molecule; 2. Statics and Dynamics of Isolated Molecules; 3. Molecular Interactions, Aggregates and Materials; 4. Molecules in the Biological Sciences, and 5. Molecules in Neurobiology and Sociobiology. There were invited lectures, poster sessions and, at the end, a wideranging general discussion, appropriate to Professor Daudel’s long and distinguished career in science and his interests in philosophy and the arts.

These proceedings have been arranged into eighteen chapters which make up the first four volumes of this series: Volume I, ‘General Introduction to Molecular

Sciences’; Volume II, ‘Physical Aspects of Molecular Systems’; Volume III, ‘Electronic Structure and Chemical Reactivity’; and Volume IV, ‘Molecular Phenomena in Biological Sciences’. The molecular concept includes the logical basis for geometrical and electronic structures, thermodynamic and kinetic properties, states of aggregation, physical and chemical transformations, specificity of biologically important interactions, and experimental and theoretical methods for studies of these properties. The scientific subjects range therefore through the fundamentals of physics, solid-state properties, all branches of chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology. In some of the essays, the authors consider relationships to more philosophic or artistic matters.

In Science, every concept, question, conclusion, experimental result, method, theory or relationship is always open to reexamination. Molecules do exist! Never- theless, there are serious questions about precise definition. Some of these questions lie at the foundations of modern physics, and some involve states of aggre- gation or extreme conditions such as intense radiation fields or the region of the continuum. There are some molecular properties that are definable only within limits, for example, the geometrical structure of non-rigid molecules, properties consistent with the uncertainty principle, or those limited by the neglect of quan- tum-field, relativistic or other effects. And there are properties which depend specifically on a state of aggregation, such as superconductivity, ferroelectric (and anti). ferromagnetic (and anti). superfluidity, excitons. polarons, etc. Thus, any molecular definition may need to be extended in a more complex situation.

Chemistry, more than any other science, creates most of its new materials. At least so far, synthesis of new molecules is not represented in this series, although the principles of chemical reactivity and the statistical mechanical aspects are included. Similarly, it is the more physico-chemical aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology and biology itself that are addressed by the examination of questions related to molecular recognition, immunological specificity, molecular pathology, photochemical effects, and molecular communication within the living organism.

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Many of these questions, and others, are to be considered in the Series ‘Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering’. In the first four volumes a central core is presented, partly with some emphasis on Theoretical and Physical Chemis- try. In later volumes, sets of related papers as well as single monographs are to be expected; these may arise from proceedings of symposia, invitations for papers on specific topics, initiatives from authors, or translations. Given the very rapid development of the scope of molecular sciences, both within disciplines and across disciplinary lines, it will be interesting to see how the topics of later volumes of this series expand our knowledge and ideas.

WILLIAM N. LIPSCOMB

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