Introduction: Dissipative localized structures in extended systems

Localized structures belong to the class of dissipative structures found far from equilibrium. Contributions from the most representative groups working on a various fields of natural science such as biology, chemistry, plant ecology, mathematics, optics, and laser physics are presented. The aim of this issue is to gather specialists from these fields towards a cross-fertilization among these active areas of research and thereby to present an overview of the state of art in the formation and the characterization of dissipative localized structures. Nonlinear optics and laser physics have an important part in this issue because of potential applications in information technology. In particular, localized structures could be used as bits for parallel information storage and processing. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.