The delegates at Bianisotropics '97 are interested in the electromagnetic response properties of a huge class of complex materials called bianisotropic materials. They are also interested in the response properties of artificial complex materials which are composites of several different bianisotropic materials. A wide variety of novel response properties become achievable with the use of composites. Many bianisotropic materials have a property called chirality. Imagine Alice is standing in front of a mirror, holding a piece of a chiral material in her hands.
Sugar is chiral, so are many drugs and pesticides.
All new drugs are nowadays required by the US Food and Drug Administration to be chirally pure for maximum effectiveness and to avoid catastrophic side-effects. A wide class of bianisotropic materials has a property called nonreciprocity. Suppose light from a pinhole falls on a nonreciprocal material and you observe the light transmitted through the material. Suppose next that your position and the position of the pinhole are interchanged. If you find that the transmitted light has also changed, the material is nonreciprocal.