For chemists, biochemists, physicists and materials scientists, pressure as an experimental variable represents a tool that provides unique information about the microscopic properties of the materials being studied. In addition to its use as a research tool for investigating the energetics, structure, dynamics and kinetics of molecular transformations of materials, pressure is also being used to modify the properties of materials to preserve or improve their properties. The contributions collected here cover the main areas of high pressure research, including applications in materials science, condensed matter physics, chemistry and biochemistry. In addition, some papers offer more specialised aspects of high pressure studies. The book makes clear the impressive range of fundamental and applied problems that can be studied by high pressure techniques and also points towards a major growth of high pressure science and technology in the near future.

High-pressure materials research has been revolutionized in the past few years due to technological breakthroughs in the diamond anvil cell (DAC), shock wave compression and molecular dynamic simulation (MD) methods. The application of high pressure, especially together with high temperature, has revealed exciting modifications of physical and chemical properties even in the simplest molecular materials.Besides the fundamental importance of these studies to understand the composition and the dynamics of heart and planets' interior, new materials possessing peculiar characteristics of hardness and composition have been synthesized at very high pressure, while unexpected chemical reactions of simple molecules to polymers and amorphous compounds have been found at milder conditions.The variety of the phenomena observed in these extreme conditions and of the materials involved provides a common ground bridging scientific communities with different cultural and experimental backgrounds. This monograph will provide a timely opportunity to report on recent progress in the field.

These books presents a wide spectrum of research and development activities in the field of High Pressure Science and Technology. These book provide comprehensive and interdisciplinary descriptions of recent research accomplishments in the biological, chemical, Earth, materrals, physical, physiological and related sciences.

High-pressure Molecular Spectroscopy describes examples of the applications of several spectroscopic methods to investigate the behavior of various chemical systems under high pressures, including guest-host interactions, chemical reactions, molecule-based multiferroics, lanthanide ion-doped glasses, and organic, inorganic and organometallic materials. The techniques involved include: Luminescence studies Inelastic neutron scattering Infrared and Raman studies Synchrotron X-ray diffraction

In many respects, the science of materials has only fully utilized two of its three fundamental tools - the variables of temperature and chemical composition. Pressure, the third fundamental variable altering materials, is in many ways the most remarkable, as it spans some 60 orders of magnitude in the universe. High-pressure science has experienced tremendous growth, particularly in the last few years. With recent developments in static and dynamic compression techniques, extreme pressure and temperature conditions can now be produced and carefully controlled over a wide range. Moreover, a new generation of analytical probes, many based on third-generation synchrotron radiation sources, have been developed and can now be applied for accurate determination of the structural, dynamical, and electronic properties of matter under extreme conditions. Finally, developments in computational techniques and advances in fundamental theory tested against bountiful new experimental results are both deepening our understanding of materials as a whole and guiding subsequent experimental work with new predictions. It was for this reason that this course on high-pressure science was held at the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi" School in July 2001. Though presented in a physics forum, the title “High-Pressure Phenomena” was chosen to reflect the broad scope of the field and the diversity of recent findings. Indeed, the field spans fundamental physics and chemistry, materials science and technology, the geosciences, planetary science and astrophysics, as well as biology. The highly interdisciplinary character of the field was central to the organization of the school, though the sheer breadth of the field meant that many topics could be treated in only a cursory fashion while others were examined more in depth. The aim of the school was to present the state-of-the-art in techniques used in modern high-pressure research, highlighting those topics where applications of these techniques are currently having a major impact.

A world wide interest in the various aspects of high pressure in the field of biological science led to the First International Conference on High Pressure Bioscience and Biotechnology in Kyoto, Japan. High pressure bioscience encompasses the fields of food sciences, pharmacy and medical fields and some high pressure techniques are used in the production of industrial products. Moreover, high pressure is a valuable tool for the study of natural macromolecules including biomembranes which are composed, primarily, of lipid and protein. Many intermediate processes in the pressure-induced protein unfolding have been discovered, as a result. This book covers the entire range of current high pressure bioscience and its possible applications.

Despite the tremendous advances in the techniques and equipment for carrying out high-pressure crystallography, the application or exploration of the high-pressure variable in detailed structural studies remains rare. The chapters in this book provide a set of lecture notes and supplementary material for a course on high pressure crystallography. The material comprises state-of-the-art reviews of high-pressure experiments using X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques at synchrotron and neutron facilities and in the laboratory, as well as complementary experimental high-pressure techniques and theoretical methods for investigating matter at elevated pressures. The materials studies range from elemental solids and liquids to inorganic compounds, minerals, organic compounds, clathrates and pharmaceutical compounds, to large biological molecules such as proteins and viruses. The book provides a reference for workers in high-pressure science wishing to learn more about crystallography and for established crystallographers potentially interested in high pressure as a variable, as well as an introductory guide to new researchers in the field.

This is the first book covering all aspects of high pressure biochemistry and biophysics of proteins. Hydrostatic pressure is a powerful tool for study of biological systems. As a thermodynamic parameter, hydrostatic pressure has been known for a century to act on biological materials in a similar, but not identical, way to temperature. However, pressure was disregarded for a long time by biochemists mainly because the basic concepts (and the thermodynamics) focused on the chemical reactions involved and because general ideas on what pressure can add to the understanding of the behaviour of proteins were lacking. In recent decades, technological progress in the field of physics has shown, along with parameters such as temperature and solvent conditions, that pressure can be used for more refined thermodynamic and kinetic descriptions of biological processes and regulation of biological systems. The effects of pressure on proteins, nucleoproteins and membranes have recently been reviewed and several proceedings books have been published.

With original work on marine and terrestrial microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, deep-sea diving, food science, and other industrial applications, this book covers the whole range of current high pressure bioscience. It will be welcomed by all industrial and academic researchers working in this field.

High pressure biology is an old, fascinating and stimulating field of research. One of the major reasons for the interest in studying high pressure is that this environmental factor also plays an important role in thermodynamics and consequently in biology. Pressure, from a biological perspective, has a bearing on all living creatures. The book pre