Unit� de Biochimie, Universit� Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Prof. Crichton, originally from the UK, is well known in the inorganic biology community and is invited to speak at many international conferences. He has published 3 books in this area (others on biochemistry of iron and metal-based neruodegeneration) and has taught over 750 doctoral and post-doctoral students. The book contains an essential distillation of the knowledge and material he had used to teach and lecture over many years.