Work in bioinorganic chemistry has accelerated substantially since 1973,
when Volume 18 of Progress in Inorganic Chemistry was published highlighting
current research topics in the field. The Preface and Introduction
to that volume are reprinted here as an historical benchmark by which to
judge the enormous progress that has been made in the intervening 17
years. During this interval, the first International Conference on Bioinorganic
Chemistry (ICBIC) was convened, and the fourth such conference
was held last summer on the MIT campus. The present volume of Progress
in Inorganic Chemistry was conceived in conjunction with ICBIC-4 as an
opportunity to present authoritative reviews by many experts in bioinorganic
chemistry who were gathering in Cambridge for the meeting. Accordingly,
ali of the plenary lecturers were invited to contribute a chapter,
and most graciously agreed to do so. In addition, a number of other speakers
at the conference were asked to review their areas of research expertise
in order to provide additional scope of coverage for this volume.