he International Year of Crystallography has understandably been a celebration of order. From Rene-Just Haüy's prescient drawings of stacked cubes to the convolutions of membrane proteins, Nature Milestones in Crystallography1 revealed a discipline able to tackle increasingly complex and subtle forms of atomic-scale regularity. But it seems fitting, as the year draws to a close, to recognize that the road ahead is far less tidy. Whether it is the introduction of defects to control semiconductor band structure2, the nanoscale disorder that can improve the performance of thermoelectric materials3, or the creation of nanoscale conduction pathways in graphene4, the future of solid-state materials physics seems increasingly to depend on a delicate balance of crystallinity and its violation. In biology, the notion of 'structure' has always been less congruent with periodicity, but ever since Schrödinger's famous 'aperiodic crystal' there has been a recognition that a deeper order may underpin the apparent molecular turmoil of life.

Every second, the Earth is being struck by cosmic rays, high energy particles that slam into the atmosphere. Understanding where they come from and how they're generated could provide information about some of the most energetic processes in the Universe. But Earth's atmosphere protects us from them, ensuring that they don't make it to the surface. Instead, we have to look for the shower of photons and particles that the cosmic rays create when they hit the atmosphere.

During The Campaign for UC Davis, which celebrated a successful closure in May 2014, Ling-Lie Chau (喬玲麗), professor emerita of physics, has made a planned giving bequest agreement with UC Davis, generously providing $1M to endow a chair in physics through her estate, and will plan to increase the amount as her good health and fortune continue.