Number 60, December 27, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein PRESSURE-AMORPHIZED QUARTZ can be anisotropic. Amorphous solids in general can be made by rapidly cooling a liquid (freezing in the disordered structure of the liquid) or by applying pressure to a crystalline solid. So far, pressure-amorphized solids have been observed to be isotropic; that is, their properties are direction-independent. Now, Laurie E. McNeil of the University of North Carolina and Marcos Grimsditch of Argonne report that when crystalline SiO2 is pressure amorphized, and after the pressure is released, the solid is amorphous but not isotropic. By scattering laser light from the sample, the researchers demonstrated that the material had retained a "memory" of its original crystallographic orientation. (Upcoming article in Physical Review Letters.) BETA ENVIRONMENTAL FINE STRUCTURE (BEFS) is the name Steven E. Koonin of Caltech has given to the possible effect the crystalline environment may have on the electron energy spectrum from the beta decay of nuclei in a crystal. In an analogous process, called extended x-ray absorption fine structure, or EXAFS, the bumps in the spectrum of inner-shell electrons ejected from atoms in a sample by incident x rays are caused by the quantum interference of waves from the outgoing electron with waves reflected from surrounding atoms. The bumps in the spectrum provide information about the identity and spacing of atoms in the material. Koonin believes that similarly the energy spectrum of the electron emitted in the beta decay of a nucleus (in a crystal) may also exhibit bumps, and that these might arise from the interference of the outgoing electron wave and waves reflected back toward the nucleus. BEFS studies would have a bearing on the search for heavy neutrinos which involve tritium decays in solid-state detectors. (Nature, 12 Dec. 1991.) THE NATIONAL NANOFABRICATION FACILITY (NNF) may move from Cornell University to another institution after 1992, when the NSF will reconsider the disposition of its funds for nanotechnology research. Giving rise to more than 1500 scientific papers since 1978, the NNF has helped boost a thriving microengineering research enterprise that promises to provide numerous applications in electronic and mechanical technology. (Science 29 Nov. 1991, special issue on nanotechnology.) FORECASTING PHYSICS DISCOVERIES is a very imperfect science. Just compare recent discoveries with the prognostications set forth in the most recent report issued by the Physics Survey Committee of the National Research Council. According to Daniel Kleppner of MIT, a member of the Committee, the 1986 report (the so-called Brinkman report, named for the committee chair, William Brinkman, then of Sandia) did not foresee such important developments as high-temperature superconductivity; atom cooling to microkelvin temperatures; buckyballs; supernova 1987A; complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics; superdeformed nuclei; large scale structure of the universe, such as the extremely uniform cosmic microwave background and the existence of huge voids and superclusters of galaxies; and the study of "mesoscopic physics," physics which involves quantum effects in micron-sized systems, such as tiny rings. (Physics Today, December 1991.)