The goal of this special collection was to provide a unique opportunity to gather together the latest results as well as to review the current issues most relevant to diffusion research.

The diffusion of atoms is an inherent feature of matter, and the rules which describe the phenomenon are important from both the purely practical and the theoretical perspectives:  it is a major rate-controlling process in phase transformations, crystal growth, recrystallization and recovery, creep, sintering, surface treatment and many other situations. Being typically a non-equilibrium macroscopic phenomenon, diffusion can be properly described in terms of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. At the same time, phenomenological diffusion characteristics represent the mean values of microscopic parameters and reflect the microscopic structure of matter. In the latter case, they contribute to providing a deeper understanding of the physical background to the observed behavior of matter in general.

This ninth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes abstracts of papers which appeared between the publication of Annual Retrospective VIII (Volumes 245-246) and the end of January 2007 (journal availability permitting).

These volumes contain an extensive body of carefully selected data, on diffusion in non-ferrous materials, gleaned from research published in leading journals during the past few decades. The materials covered include less-common as well as common metals, in both the almost-pure and highly-alloyed states, and the chosen data take account of the effects of various special conditions (thin films, strain, radiation, etc.) upon bulk, surface and pipe diffusion.

This issue comprises an extensive body of selected data, on diffusion in iron-based materials, gleaned from research published in leading journals during the past 70 years. The materials covered range from the almost-pure metal, to high-alloy steels (including metallic glasses) and the data reflect the effect of special conditions (thin films, strain, etc.) upon bulk, surface and pipe diffusion.

This eighth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes abstracts of papers which appeared between the publication of Annual Retrospective VII (Volumes 242-244) and the end of June 2006 (journal availability permitting).

This work bridges the gaps between mechanical spectroscopy, internal friction, relaxation phenomena in solids and the spectroscopic approach to the dissipation of mechanical energy in solids. A limited number of papers are selected from different fields in order to compare the analysis of similar relaxation phenomena occurring in various materials.

This substance is very much a material for the new millennium, since its new manifestation as a high-temperature superconductor can be dated precisely from the seminal 2001 Nature paper (1st March, p63), Superconductivity at 39K in Magnesium Diboride, by J.Nagamatsu, N.Nakagawa, T.Muranaka, Y.Zenitani and J.Akimitsu of the Physics Department of Aoyama-Gakuin University, Tokyo. Until then, it had been seen and used only as a rather nondescript ceramic/abrasive.

The topic of diffusion science becomes more and more important: this collection of timely papers is divided into seven chapters. The first three are dedicated to macroscopic and microscopic theories of diffusion.

This eighth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes nearly 700 abstracts of papers which appeared between the publication of Annual Retrospective VII (Volumes 233-234) and the end of November 2005 (allowing for vagaries of journal availability).