Journalists provide an important function in a free society. Through their efforts, the public receives a low cost and accessible continuing education about its world — from who's inciting war, or where interest rates are likely to go in the next three months, to what made the space shuttle explode. In fact, it can be argued that the fast pace of modern society is making each of us increasingly more reliant on the news and knowledge journalists impart. As a member of the news-gathering fraternity, I have been asked to go behind the scenes and describe what it is that journalists, especially science writers, do — including what drives and limits us. There are lessons in this for everyone, not the least of which may be a greater appreciation for the growing symbiosis between the news media and science.

With some 65 U.S. newspapers already carrying regular science sections and a population of probably more than 1,000 accredited science writers, it may come as some surprise to learn that science journalism is largely an invention of this century. In their book Scientists and Journalists: Reporting Science as Neius (Free Press, New York, 1985), Sharon Friedman, Sharon Dunwoody, and Carol Rogers note that prior to the world wars, science achievements were seldom treated as news and “scientists rarely served as sources.”

We present the possibilities that metallic superlattices offer for the study of materials at length scales ranging from a few to hundreds of angstroms. The materials problems being studied span practically all interesting solid-state phenomena, including superconductivity, magnetism, elastic behavior, development of novel materials, diffusion, ion beam mixing, crystallization, and amorphization. Several applications are also being pursued. We present a few examples of problems that can be studied at different length scales. Emphasis is made that for a proper study of materials properties, extensive structural characterization is imperative.

There is great current interest in layered anisotropic materials. Much of the interesi relates to the possibility of an approximate decoupling of 3-dimensional (3D) behavioi into ID properties perpendicular to the layer planes and 2D properties associated with the layer planes. Since this decoupling in layered materials is enhanced by intercalation, much attention has been given to intercalation compounds in recenl years as a means to study interesting questions of low dimensional physics. Since many deliberately structured materials also are prepared in layered sequences, there are many close connections between the properties of intercalated layered materials and deliberately structured materials. This article will focus on several important connections between intercalated layered materials and multilayered superlattice structures prepared by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD).

Interest in intercalation compounds has led to three lively MRS symposia on this topic (Fall 1982, Fall 1984, Fall 1986) and a number of summer schools and workshops, one of which was held in July 1986 at Erice, Sicily, under the auspices of NATO and the European Physical Society. The published lecture notes1 from this summer school provide a useful introduction and reference for students and others interested in this field.