he exceptionally rich subterranean fauna of Slovenia offers an opportunity for the promotion of the country and its science abroad. Slovenia is historically famous as the place where the science of subterranean biology was born, but the contribution of native scientists has long been quite modest. An improvement in subterranean biology means also a general rise of the status of zoological science in Slovenia. Speleobiological and taxonomical research leads to a better knowledge of the biological diversity, which is required for conservation purposes. Our basic ecotoxicological research includes: - structure and functioning of selected model organisms; - the influence of essential and nonessential metals at the organismic, tissue, and cellular level; mechanisms of uptake, detoxification and mutual interactions of metals. The results of the mentioned basic research serve for environmental risk assessment, and for the setting of more realistic environmental standards regarding critical concentrations of metals. Otherwise they have to be copied from international recommendations that do not take into account specific circumstances like precipitation, acidity of the ground, annual temperature dynamics etc. Our knowledge about the influence of metals will be of use in the fields of environmental protection and conservation. The methods that we use and develop (molecular biology, genetic analysis, multivariate statistics, electron microscopy, microwave techniques, tissue preparation) are state of the art. By keeping this methodology up to date we help to maintain a high professional standard and to transfer the know-how to students.