This volume comprises the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute
held at Geilo, Norway, 24 March - 3 April 2003, the seventeenth ASI in a
series held every two years since 1971. The objective of this ASI was to
identify and discuss areas where synergism between modern physics, soft
condensed matter and biology might be most fruitful. The main
pedagogical approach was to have lecturers focussing on basic
understanding of important aspects of the relative role of the various
interaction- electrostatic, hydrophobic, steric, conformational, van der
Waals etc. Soft condensed matter and the connection between physics and
biology have been the themes of several earlier Geilo Schools. A return
to these subjects thus allowed a fresh look and a possibility for
defining new directions for research. Examples of soft materials, which
were discussed at this ASI, included colloidal dispersions, gels,
biopolymers and charged polymer solutions, polyelectrolytes,
protein/membrane complexes, nucleic acids and their complexes. Indeed,
most forms of condensed matter are soft and these substances are
composed of aggregates and macromolecules, with interactions that are
too weak and complex to form crystals spontaneously. A characteristic
feature is that small external forces, slight perturbations in
temperature, pressure or concentration, can all be enough to induce
significant structural changes. Thermal fluctuations are almost by
definition strong in soft materials and entropy is a predominant
determinant of structure, so that disorder, slow dynamics and plastic
deformation are the rule. Hence the phrase 'soft condensed matter' has
been coined.