Acknowledgements
Two Mikes and two Davids are extremely grateful for the efforts of all who have supported the production
of this book. Our unqualified thanks are given above all to our 10 expert and understanding co-authors,
whose contributions have made possible this third edition. We express our sincere appreciation of their
patience, tolerance, and enthusiastic diligence during the numerous revision processes required for the
production of the completed work.
We are also very grateful to very many colleagues and fellow scientists who have provided us with valu-
able comments on the first two editions of the text and especially those who have read portions of the new
edition. They include Jason Betley, Chris Calladine, Rick Cosstick, Steve Fodor, Dan Gewirth, Alec
Jeffreys, David Lilley, Kiyoshi Nagai, Barbara Nawrot, Frank Seela, Jean Thomas, Andrew Travers, and
David Wilson. We are once again indebted to Joachim Engels forupdating and expanding the glossary and
to Rich Roberts for writing the forward for this edition.
The technical production of this book has been enabled by many skilled individuals. We particularly
appreciate the efforts of all the staff involved in the Royal Society of Chemistry for their enthusiasm,
patience, and highly professional production of the completed work. We and our co-authors gratefully
acknowledge the efforts of Fred Anston, John Brazier, Pat Mellor, Sabuj Pattanayek, and Wenke Zhang
who have facilitated the completion of figures and text in various chapters. In particular we are greatly
indebted to Annette Lenton who has redrawn, recoloured, or reworked very many of the figures in order to
achieve a homogeneous standard and style. We thank Venki Ramakrishnan for providing original graphics
for the cover of the third edition of the book and Richard Dickerson, Stephen Lippard, and Dinshaw Patel
for illustrative figures.
Last but not least, we have enjoyed receiving a large number of positive and helpful comments from
readers of the first two editions. We have endeavoured to incorporate all constructive criticisms into the
new edition. In particular we thank colleagues around the world whose strong support provided much
motivation for the creation of this third edition.
Despite all our careful work, it is inevitable that there will be some errors and we accept full responsi-
bility for them. Finally, we look forward to your advice, comments, and suggestions for future revisions.