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Preface to volume 4
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P R E F A C E TO V O L U M E 4 This volume contains 17 chapters on many aspects of biological thermal analysis and calorimetry. I wish I could have written the words "all aspects" but it proved impossible to cover every ground. This is because some potential authors for Volume 4 either were not prepared to commit themselves to a spot of work that does not bring high impact brownie points or they fell by the wayside owing to the increasing pressure on academe as we hit the next millennium! After all, a Handbook is not intended as a flagship for disseminating the latest research results, though it is easy to be tempted down this path, but rather "how and what to do and when to do it". So, what started 5 years ago as a Thessalonian labour of love has, in some ways, become "emprisoned in black, purgatorial rails" (Keats)! I received the first chapter three, long years ago and some of the excellent chapters have been with me for two years or more. These authors have only made (to me !) the very occasional complaint (while probably inwardly fuming!) but my increasingly urgent nightmare has been of them bearing down on me all at once - as Mike Jagger sang "Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy"! I do apologise to all of them but I did what I could and it is in deference to these justifiably "charging boys" that I have called "stumps" (an end to it), inevitably leaving some holes. There would have been more but for some colleagues coming in late to replace those that failed to stay the course - each one is "like a diamond in the sky"! Talking of precious jewels, I must make mention of Ms Swan Go of Elsevier. Without her, I would have cracked up long ago! Not only was she there for every technical problem, there are many in camera ready work, but she would act as the proverbial shoulder in one's darkest hours, help to find alternatives, ring the recalcitrant and sooth the sibilant! Mirabile dictu! I would also like to salute the Editor of Volume 1, Mike Brown, as a fellow trooper! In cricketing terms, we had a long batting partnership against some devilish spin bowling that turned in every direction and, in the end, we won the match! Palma non sine pulvere! Finally, I am pleased to express my gratitude to all the contributors, fast and slow, to the Series Editor, Pat Gallagher and to the long suffering guys ("groupies") in my laboratory ("group", we have to call it in these post-Beatles days) for enabling this Volume to appear at all! I learned a great deal from reading all the chapters but sometimes felt that in my work I am playing the triangle rather than the tympani. I trust that the book will prove valuable in assisting more scientists to realise the potential of heat
viii
measurements in their research while showing those already in the business what is done in other areas in the name of heat! After all, the use of the technique in biology is two hundred and twenty years old enough to be of a mature vintage!
R I C H A R D B. K E M P Volume Editor
P R E F A C E TO V O L U M E 4 This volume contains 17 chapters on many aspects of biological thermal analysis and calorimetry. I wish I could have written the words "all aspects" but it proved impossible to cover every ground. This is because some potential authors for Volume 4 either were not prepared to commit themselves to a spot of work that does not bring high impact brownie points or they fell by the wayside owing to the increasing pressure on academe as we hit the next millennium! After all, a Handbook is not intended as a flagship for disseminating the latest research results, though it is easy to be tempted down this path, but rather "how and what to do and when to do it". So, what started 5 years ago as a Thessalonian labour of love has, in some ways, become "emprisoned in black, purgatorial rails" (Keats)! I received the first chapter three, long years ago and some of the excellent chapters have been with me for two years or more. These authors have only made (to me !) the very occasional complaint (while probably inwardly fuming!) but my increasingly urgent nightmare has been of them bearing down on me all at once - as Mike Jagger sang "Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy"! I do apologise to all of them but I did what I could and it is in deference to these justifiably "charging boys" that I have called "stumps" (an end to it), inevitably leaving some holes. There would have been more but for some colleagues coming in late to replace those that failed to stay the course - each one is "like a diamond in the sky"! Talking of precious jewels, I must make mention of Ms Swan Go of Elsevier. Without her, I would have cracked up long ago! Not only was she there for every technical problem, there are many in camera ready work, but she would act as the proverbial shoulder in one's darkest hours, help to find alternatives, ring the recalcitrant and sooth the sibilant! Mirabile dictu! I would also like to salute the Editor of Volume 1, Mike Brown, as a fellow trooper! In cricketing terms, we had a long batting partnership against some devilish spin bowling that turned in every direction and, in the end, we won the match! Palma non sine pulvere! Finally, I am pleased to express my gratitude to all the contributors, fast and slow, to the Series Editor, Pat Gallagher and to the long suffering guys ("groupies") in my laboratory ("group", we have to call it in these post-Beatles days) for enabling this Volume to appear at all! I learned a great deal from reading all the chapters but sometimes felt that in my work I am playing the triangle rather than the tympani. I trust that the book will prove valuable in assisting more scientists to realise the potential of heat
viii
measurements in their research while showing those already in the business what is done in other areas in the name of heat! After all, the use of the technique in biology is two hundred and twenty years old enough to be of a mature vintage!
R I C H A R D B. K E M P Volume Editor