The initial impetus for this book on ?bers originated from a weeklong s-
posium where scientists of a variety of walks met to discuss their work
on ?bers with medical and specialty applications. Seeing the bene?ts of
sharing information across disparate ?elds and disciplines of science we
realized the potential for cross-fertilization of ideas between
different area of ?ber science. Thus, represented here are a variety of
potential product lines under the cover of a single book, which for the
imaginative scientist we hope will lead to some new food for thought.
The ?elds of medical and specialty ?bers include a wide array of
naturalandsynthetic textiles, medicaldevices, andspecialtypaperand wood
products. Research in these areas has become more interesting to s-
entists who are seeking to strike out in new directions based on an
impulse to
createnewproductsthatmeettheunmetneedsofrapidlygrowing?bermarkets in
wound care, prosthetic, and cellulosic arenas. It is hoped that
providing new concepts and approaches to working with different types of
?brous materials
willgivethereadersomepulseofthecurrentclimateandresearchopportunities of
medical and specialty ?bers. Breakthroughs into a better understanding
of wound healing, biomaterial design, ?ber surface chemistry and bio-
and na- technologies are currently providing the impetus to create the
?ber products of the future. The editors feel that a book of this type
would be remiss wi- out discussions of the impact interdisciplinary
scienti?c pursuits are having on ?ber desig
