Nine years ago saw the publication of the first version of Three-dimensional Structure of Wood: A scanning electron microscope study [95]. This book contained 59 scanning electron micrographs and a modest text outlining the basic structure of wood_ When we wrote it in 1970, the scanning electron microscope was still something of a novelty (the first commercially produced SEM only coming on the market in 1965) and its use as an instrument in serious wood research was still treated by many with a good deal of suspicion. Such suspicions were not without foundation for indeed the first...