2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/66691A survey of the applications of the noncommutative Cohn localization of rings to the topology of manifolds with infinite fundamental group, with particular emphasis on the algebraic K- and L-theory of generalized free products.20 pages, LATEX. To appear in the Proceedings of the Conference on Noncommutative Localization in Algebra and Topology, ICMS, Edinburgh, 29-30 April, 2002. v2 is a minor revision of v1Algebraic TopologyRings and Algebras57R67; 16A08text