Molecules in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology: Molecular Phenomena in Biological Sciences

When we decided to organize an International Symposium dedicated to Professor Daudel, a question arose: on which themes should such a Symposium bear? After having reviewed all the themes on which P r o f ~ s s o r Daudel has worked during his long career, Imre Csizmadia and myself were somewhat at a loss; these themes ranged from Atomic Physics to Molecular Biology, with a stress on Theoretical Chemistry. Then I recalled a conversation I had in 1968, when I was in V a n c o u v e ~ with Harden McConnell, on leave from Stanford. I asked him why he had switched to Biology; he answered: "I'm often asked thiS question. But I don't feel I've ever switched to Biology. I have always been interdsted in molecules, just molecules: in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology". I felt this flash of wit would make a perfect title for a Symposium dedicated to Professor D a u ~ e l , who has also been interested in molecules in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, lIDt from a theoretical viewpoint.
However, when it came to preparing a content appropriate to this title, we ended up with a several-page program, which idefined what could have been some kind of an advanced-study institute, involving most of Physical Chemistry and parts of Molecular Biology. We announced the Symposium on that pluridisciplinary basis and then started receiving answers from invited speakers and proposals for communications. While classifying the letters, it appeared to us that a few key themes had emerged, which seemed likely to constitute 'hot topics' of the Molecular Sciences in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Indeed there are fashions in Science too, whether these are induced by the natural development of the sciences or by economic or cultural constraints