From the 16th to the 20th of July 2017, the 19th IUPAB (International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics) world congress was held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Organized in conjunction with the 11th EBSA (European Biophysical Societies' Association) the meeting attracted over 1430 participants, had 35 scientific sessions and 10 plenary speakers. Each invited speaker was invited to contribute either a short review or a letter article that summarized the contents of their session. This special issue of Biophysical Reviews is dedicated to providing contextual background to some of the many talks presented at the meeting in Edinburgh. The reader is referred to supplementary issue 1 of volume 46 of the European Biophysics Journal for a complete listing of abstracts for all presented talks and posters.