In keeping with tradition, this collection covers three principal crystallization methods: from the vapor, solution, and the melt. The five articles of the first part are concerned with heterostructure formation. O. P. Pchelyakov and L. V. Sokolov report on controlled growth of nanostructures in the Si-Ge system using an array of modern analytical tools to follow the process in situ. A different method for growing quantum-sized Si-Ge structures is used by Mil'vidskii et al., chemical deposition of hydrides from the vapor. Stresses and misfit dislocations in the resulting heterostructures are...