One area of science that has shown an explosive growth over the last few decades is materials science. Inherently by nature products of both basic and applied research, materials make possible life and society as we know it today. Materials, ranging from ceramics to semiconductors to composites, are such that new ones must not only be designed and made ... they must also be characterized in terms of their physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. Thus, many new state- of-the-art techniques involving spectroscopy, microscopy, and other approaches are now routinely used. Modem materials...