Long Distance Transport

Abstract

A few years ago, I attended a 1-day symposium on long distance transport at a national meeting in a country abroad. Towards the end of the day, as the participants became tired and no general agreement was in sight, one observer from an allied discipline remarked, Why can't you translocation workers make any progress, you still discuss the same miserable old models that were proposed 40 years ago. The basis of this accusation is the problem that translocation discussions are often preoccupied with mechanisms about which uncertainty still exists. This tends to obscure the real progress that has been made. Meetings are usually not held to review established facts, but rather to discuss unsolved problems. This symposium is an exception. For once, we can lean back in our chairs and ask ourselves what was known when our society was founded in 1924, and then we can let the progress of the past 50 years parade before our minds and see how much better informed we are today. A review of such an enormous field must necessarily be selective and it is rather natural that it will be a personal view.