Number 266 (Story #2), April 12, 1996 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein A NEW MATERIAL SHRINKS WHEN HEATED over a wide temperature range, from 0.3 K up to 1050 K. Unlike most materials, which expand when heated, the zirconium tungstate compound (ZrW2O8) made by an Oregon State-Brookhaven collaboration exhibits a negative thermal expansion in three dimensions. Previously known shrinking materials have done so only over a small temperature range, or have shrunk anisotropically; some bakeware ceramics, for example, shrink in one dimension but actually expand in the other two dimensions. The size of the zirconium tungstate structure is closely monitored with sub-angstrom precision, as the temperature is raised, by scattering neutrons (from a Brookhaven reactor) from the sample. An important role for the material would be as a component in composite materials where is to desirable to keep thermal expansion to a minimum. (T.A. Mary et al., Science, 5 April 1996.)