List of Portraits; Preface; Part I. Different Classes of Solitons: Introduction; 1. Nontopological solitons: the Korteweg-de Vries equation; 2. Topological soltitons: sine-Gordon equation; 3. Envelope solitons and nonlinear localisation: the nonlinear Schrödinger equation; 4. The modelling process: ion acoustic waves in a plasma; Part II. Mathematical Methods for the Study of Solitons: Introduction; 5. Linearisation around the soliton solution; 6. Collective coordinate method; 7. The inverse-scattering transform; Part III. Examples in Solid State and Atomic Physics: Introduction; 8. The Ferm-Pasta-Ulam problem; 9. A simple model for dislocations in crystals; 10. Ferroelectric domain walls; 11. Incommensurate phases; 12. Solitons in magnetic systems; 13. Solitons in Conducting polymers; 14. Solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates; Part IV. Nonlinear Excitations in Biological Molecules: Introduction; 15. Energy localisation and transfer in proteins; 16. Nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics of DNA; Conclusion: Physical solitons: do they exist?; Part V. Appendices: A. Derivation of the KdV equation for surface hydrodynamic waves; B. Mechanics of a continuous medium; C. Coherent states of an harmonic oscillator; References; Index.