The Prokaryotes

For many of us, these simple rewards are suf­ The purpose of this briefforeword is unchanged from the first edition; it is simply to make you, ficiently gratifying so that we have chosen to the reader, hungry for the scientific feast that spend our scientific lives studying these unusual follows. These four volumes on the prokaryotes creatures. In these endeavors many of the strat­ offer an expanded scientific menu that displays egies and tools as well as much of the philos­ the biochemical depth and remarkable physi­ ophy may be traced to the Delft School, passed ological and morphological diversity of prokar­ on to us by our teachers, Martinus Beijerinck, yote life. The size ofthe volumes might initially A. J. Kluyver, and C. B. van Niel, and in turn discourage the unprepared mind from being at­ passed on by us to our students. tracted to the study of prokaryote life, for this In this school, the principles of the selective, enrichment culture technique have been devel­ landmark assemblage thoroughly documents oped and diversified; they have been a major the wealth of present knowledge. But in con­ force in designing and applying new principles fronting the reader with the state of the art, the Handbook also defines where more work needs for the capture and isolation of microbes from to be done on well-studied bacteria as well as nature. For me, the organism approach has on unusual or poorly studied organisms. provided rewarding adventures.