In 1992, a group of scientists including molecular biologists,
microbiologists, population biolo- gists, ecologists, human geneticists,
moral philosophers and others met discussing the state of affairs
regarding the deliberate or unintentional release of genetically
modified organisms. The proceedings of this meeting were subsequently
published by Birkhauser Verlag as Transgenic Organisms: Risk Assessment
of Deliberate Release (K. Wohrmann and J. Tomiuk). Since then we have
gained many new insights that are also worthy of discussion. And
although other equally important scientific views on the release of
genetically modified organisms exist, we have mainly concentrated on
aspects of population biology and evolution. The results of a second
meeting in 1995 are summarized here. We are grateful to colleagues and
friends for their help in the translation, correction and review of the
authors' contributions. We especially want to thank Jutta Bachmann,
Donna Devine, Diana von Finck, Friedrich Laplace, Volker Loeschcke, Rolf
Lorenz, Dave Parker and Trevor Petney. A grant (BMFT N' 0311035) from
the Ministerium fUr Forschung und Technologie der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland again made possible the continuation of this cooperative
endeavour.