Niobium in perspective

It is often customary at a major symposium such as this one to include a concluding paper which summarizes the various presentations, showing how each relates to the theme of the meeting, and which draws conclusions and makes predictions based on the data presented. However, the areas reviewed in "Niobium 81" are so diverse and in many ways unrelated that such an approach would be entirely inappropriate and a very daunting task... (AU)