Book excerpt: During the past few decades we have witnessed an era of remarkable growth in the field of molecular biology. In 1950 very little was known of the chemical constitution of biological systems, the manner in which in formation was transmitted from one organism to another, or the extent to which the chemical basis of life is unified. The picture today is dramati cally different. We have an almost bewildering variety of information detailing many different aspects of life at the molecular level. These great advances have brought with them some breath-taking insights into the molecular mechanisms used by nature for replicating, distributing and modifying biological information. We have learned a great deal about the chemical and physical nature of the macromolecular nucleic acids and proteins, and the manner in which carbohydrates, lipids and smaller mole cules work together to provide the molecular setting of living systems. It might be said that these few decades have replaced a near vacuum of information with a very large surplus. It is in the context of this flood of information that this series of mono graphs on molecular biology has been organized. The idea is to bring together in one place, between the covers of one book, a concise assess ment of the state of the subject in a well-defined field.