ABSTRACT
With the information overload we experience today, it is imperative to pause occasionally in order to take stock of the progress in one’s chosen field of research and also to identify new trends and emerging areas. Yet, in order to look ahead, it is often useful to scrutinize the past. Clearly, those of us active in the natural sciences are much less aware of the historical value of our professional records than are our colleagues in the arts and humanities, where the preservation of personal records has always been recognized as necessary. It is true that most of our scientific contributions are documented explicitly in journal publications; however, these reveal little about the circumstances under which the work was carried out or about the personal motivations and the historical background that led to the final product as we know it today.
