PHYSICS BEYOND VAN-DER-WAALS

Recent work has seen a third major surprise added to modern understand ing of the subject known historically as the theory of capillarity. Th ere is, however, some reason for confidence that there are no more maj or pieces of the jigsaw missing from our knowledge of this mature subj ect. Modern science has also seen the rapid development of experimenta l technologies heralding an era in which the microscopic organisation of adsorbed matter will be both studied and controlled at a molecular level. It is therefore an appropriate time to reassess the increasingl y complex world of the statistical mechanics of inhomogeneous fluids i n the historical context of the theory of capillarity. This exercise i s both a celebration of the achievements of the founding fathers of th e subject plus a realisation of the true extent of the complexity that lies just behind the familiar physics.