In prefaces to previous volumes of the Annual Review of Nutrition, the attempt has been made to point out that the topics range from updated findings at the basic science end of our discipline to those extensions that may be considered applied. Given the unwarranted trepidation of some to use such terms as “basic” and “applied,” I can offer the two sides of this argument by quoting well-known earlier scientists: Louis Pasteur wrote in 1871 that "… there does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are science and the applications of science …" (translated by I. B. Cohen from Revue Scientifique). Somewhat later Albert Einstein wrote in 1931 that “… you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings.” (Address at the California Institute of Technology.)

As seen in previous volumes and in numerous discourses on what is a nutritionist, it is satisfying to most of us that we can fit our expertise and interest somewhere in the broad span from the molecular-oriented sciences of life to the preventive and corrective measures that carry into public health and clinical practice. Again the topics of chapters in the present volume offer some of this diverse menu. Much of what has been discovered at the basic level, as in the past, will surely lead to useful applied outcome. With regard to the mix of basic and applied topics of nutrition to be found in this volume, one can read updates of a basic, molecular nature that are found in the chapter on catabolism of folate by Jae Rin Suh et al or on mammalian selenium-containing proteins by Dietrich Behne & Antonios Kyriakopoulos. Subjects that bridge from basic to applied are represented by such a chapter as by Michael Hambidge & Nancy F. Krebs that deals with key variables of human zinc homeostasis as relate to dietary requirements or by Charles B. Stephensen on vitamin A and its impact on immune function. Clearly there are other extrapolations that a careful reader may draw from chapters dealing with findings from basic science, just as all of us should be pleased by those applications that guide us toward better health. At the applied and clinical level is a chapter by Mary K. Serdula et al that reviews dietary assessment of preschool children, and the problems with present nutritional management of maintenance dialysis patients are considered by Rajnish Mehrotra & Joel D. Kopplein their chapter. Leif Hallberg has provided us in the prefatory chapter with his scholarly perspectives on nutritional iron deficiency. Though our species of major consideration is the human, there are some interesting findings of a comparative nature with chapters by Pamela J. Trotter on genetics of fatty acid metabolism in yeast and by Lilián E. Canavoso and her colleagues on fat metabolism in insects.

My thanks as always to our Associate Editors (Drs. Bier and Cousins), the Editorial Committee and guests (listed in the front), and to Lisa Dean, the production editor, Roberta Parmer, the copyeditor, and Dr. Sam Gubins as president of Annual Reviews.

Donald B. McCormick, Editor