Basic science [1996 technology review]

New classes of materials auguring remarkable applications went under the microscope, so to speak, in 1996: notably, novel forms of carbon (buckyballs and nanotubes) and substances that switch from insulator to conductor in a strong magnetic field. Sonoluminescence, hitherto a lab curiosity, may manifest nuclear fusion. The term describes the ability of air bubbles in water to give off light when exposed to intense ultrasound. And discoveries in plasma physics and multilayer mirrors may bring tabletop X-ray lasers closer to reality.