Book excerpt: From an August 1992 symposium in Washington, D.C., 13 papers report on research into developing fluorescent chemosensors for devices to monitor several critical parameters of blood composition in real time. They aim at opening communication between the clinicians and researchers who want such devices and the scientists and engineers who could develop them. Among the topics are the synthesis and study of crown ethers with alkali- metal-enhanced fluorescence, the tunable florescence of some macrocyclic anthracenophanes, and fluorescent probes in studies of proteases. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR