Two French-born Nobel Laureates participated in the Adriatico Research Conference on Interaction and Assembly of Biomolecules that took place from 27 to 31 August. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, who lectured on "Artificial Muscles," is a professor at the College de France in Paris. A 1991 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, he is known as the 'prophet of soft matter.' Jean-Marie Lehn, who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, lectured on "Supramolecular Engineering through Programmed Self-Organization." Lehn, who teaches at the Universite Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, received an honorary degree from the University of Trieste last May.