The Structure and Conformation of Amphiphilic Membranes

Membranes composed of amphiphilic molecules are highly
flexible surfaces      that determine the architecture of
biological systems and provide a basic   structural element
for complex fluids such as microemulsions. Recently,      a
variety of new experimental methods such as X-ray
scattering, neutron scattering, and atomic force microscopy
have been used in order to study themolecular structure of
these membranes. Their conformational behavior, on   the other
hand, is studied by optical and electron microscopy,                     which
reveals that membranes in aqueous solution exhibit an
amazing      variety of different shapes. Several theoretical
concepts are described suchas bending elasticity,
curvature, and minimal surfaces in order to               understand this
polymorphism. These concepts are also useful to describe      the
behavior of membranes in complex fluids where they can build
up      hexagonal, lamellar, triply-periodic, cubic, and sponge
phases. The            contributions to this volume provide an
up-to-date overview and describe thestate-of-the-art of
this rapidly evolving field of research.