It is well known (and true) that among all n-dimensional closed surfaces (boundaries of bounded regions) in i2 n+1 having n-area equal to that of the standard n-sphere dB n+1 (0,1), the n-sphere itself uniquely (up to translations and sets of measure 0) encloses the largest volume. An equivalent formulation of this statement is the optimal isoperimetric inequality which asserts thatfor any nonempty bounded region Q in i2 n+1 with equality if and only if (up to sets of measure 0) Q = int B n+1 (p, r) for some p € # n+1 and 0 < r < oo; here £ n+1 denotes (n + l)-dimensional Lebesgue measure, M n denotes ndimensional Hausdorff measure, B n+1 (p,r) = R n+1 fl {x: \x -p\ < r}, and 7(n + 1) = £ n+1 (B n+1 (0, l))/[>/ n (a5 n+1 (0, l))]^1)/* is the optimal isoperimetric constant. Q need not be the only bounded region having dQ as boundary.We announce several new optimal isoperimetric inequalities of geometric measure theory, proved in [Al], which are valid in general dimensions and codimensions.