Once the second edition was safely off to the printer, the 110 larger world of micro-CT and micro-MRI and the smaller world authors breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, secure in the belief revealed by the scanning and transmission electron microscopes. that they would “never have to do that again. ” That lasted for 10 To round out the story we even have a chapter on what PowerPoint years. When we ?nally awoke, it seemed that a lot had happened. does to the results, and the annotated bibliography has been In particular, people were trying to use the Handbook as a text- updated and extended. book even though it lacked the practical chapters needed. There As with the previous editions, the editor enjoyed a tremendous had been tremendous progress in lasers and ?ber-optics and in our amount of good will and cooperation from the 124 authors understanding of the mechanisms underlying photobleaching and involved. Both I, and the light microscopy community in general, phototoxicity. It was time for a new book. I contacted “the usual owe them all a great debt of gratitude. On a more personal note, I suspects” and almost all agreed as long as the deadline was still a would like to thank Kathy Lyons and her associates at Springer for year away.