Cytodifferentiation and Macromolecular Synthesis

The title of this essay, and this volume, was the theme of the 21st Growth Symposium. The number of the symposium may be significant, for there is a sense in which the Growth Symposium, its sponsoring Society, and the science of development which is the Society's focus, all have been coming of age. After a long period of successful operation provided by the impetus of its founders, the Society has been re-evaluating and redefining its role. The appearance of this volume, under a new publisher and a new editor, comes only after careful soul-searching by the Society's Publication Committee. Despite altered circumstance since the Growth Symposium was founded, it was decided that its publication remains a valuable contribution to the literature of developmental biology, and that it is the responsibility of the Society to make it an even greater one. To accomplish this, changes?involving both procedures and content?were suggested. Among these was looser “coupling” of the orally presented symposium and the published one, and inclusion of a synthetic article on the theme of the symposium.