Book excerpt: This collection constitutes an essential sourcebook for researchers, producers and users seeking technical information on materials with foam-like structures.The collection is unique, in that it brings together people from the fields of metals and polymers. Both material types derive their advantageous properties from a cellular structure. These properties include: low weight, high specific stiffness and strength, excellent energy absorption capacity, as well as damping and insulation properties. On the other hand, the processing of metals is far more difficult due to the higher temperatures involved. Another important factor is the faster decay of metal foam structures, at the end of the foaming process, because of their combination of high surface tension and low viscosity. The differences in foamability, between metals and polymers, explain why cellular plastics have been widely used for some time whereas cellular metals have only recently found their first applications. The present volume expertly reviews the known scientific results in these fields; particularly with regard to the understanding of foam processing (e.g. mechanisms of stabilization) as well as foam properties (e.g. the material's response to fatigue and crash situations).This collection constitutes an essential sourcebook for researchers, producers and users seeking technical information on materials with foam-like structures. The 63 papers of this proceedings were first presented at the Symposium on Cellular Metals and Polymers, sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, in October 2004, in Fürth, Germany. Also included are reports from the DFG program on Cellular Metals. Keynote talks were given on topics that include an overview of the mechanical properties of foams and periodic lattice materials, physics of polymer foams, and the role of rheology in foaming polymers. The papers are grouped into sections, including processes of metal foams, properties of metal foams, particle foams and simulation, component fabrication and application of metal foams, and commercial applications and products of polymer foams. The volume is illustrated with b&w plates, and contains an author.