Book excerpt: The symposia take place every two years. They are the forum at which scientists concerned with shock waves present their research. They USE shock waves for chemical kinetics studies, for materials studies, and smashing kidney stones; they STUDY the phenomena associated with flows involving shock waves, such as supersonic flow, explosions, detonations, volcanic eruptions, and, in this symposium, even such with-it topics as impact of Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter and blast waves in the World Trade Center. They also discover new, bigger and better ways of generating flows at hypervelocity speeds and develop their technological tools further.The international exchange of information is documented in the proceedings volumes, which have become a storehouse of information on the subject, documenting the history of this peculiar branch of science that involves chemists, physicists, engineers, geophysicists, material scientists and biologists.