Number 22 (Story #1), February 21, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein CONDUCTANCE FLUCTUATIONS IN MESOSCOPIC METALS: When electrons flow through small (much less than a micron in size, but larger than atomic-sized--a size regime referred to as "mesoscopic") samples of disordered metal at low temperatures (less than 1 K) quantum effects can come into play: the wavelike electrons interfere with themselves. This results in a fluctuation in the conductance of the sample which exhibits "1/f noise," a condition in which the likelihood of a fluctuation of a certain size is inversely proportional to that size raised to some power. Shechao Feng of UCLA (213-825-8530) and Patrick Lee of MIT have shown that contrary to expectation the 1/f noise power actually increases as the temperature decreases. They also compare the current fluctuations to the speckle pattern one sees in the scattering of laser light. (Science, 8 Feb. 1991.)