Biological Adhesive Systems

J. Herbert Waite Like many graduate students before and after me I was There are so many species about which nothing is known, mesmerized by a proposition expressed years earlier by and the curse of not knowing is apathy. Krogh (1929) – namely that “for many problems there is Bioadhesion is the adaptation featured in this book, an animal on which it can be most conveniently studied”. and biology has many adhesive practitioners. Indeed, This opinion became known as the August Krogh Prin- every living organism is adhesively assembled in the ciple and remains much discussed to this day, particu- most exquisite way. Clearly, speci? c adhesion needs to larly among comparative physiologists (Krebs, 1975). be distinguished from the opportunistic variety. I think The words “problems” and “animal” are key because of speci? c adhesion as the adhesion between cells in the they highlight the two fundamental and complementary same tissue, whereas opportunistic adhesion might be the foci of biological research: (1) expertise about an animal adhesion between pathogenic microbes and the urinary (zoo-centric), which is mostly observational and (2) a tract, or between a slug and the garden path. If oppor- mechanistic analysis of some problem in the animal’s life nistic bioadhesion is our theme, then there are still many history or physiology (problem-centric), which is usually practitioners but the subset is somewhat more select than a hypothesis-driven investigation. before.