This issue of Liquid Crystals Today is slimmer than usual, and so provides an excuse for an editorial. Copy for Liquid Crystals Today comes through a variety of channels: some items are sent unsolicited to the editor or members of the editorial board, while feature articles are often written as a result of one of the editorial team reading or hearing about some new development in liquid crystal science. The flow of contributions is, therefore, random, and one of the tasks of the editor is to try to ensure that, from this random flow, a steady stream of high quality material emerges to coincide with the publication dates. This time it hasn't happened, so rather than wait for articles in the pipe-line, we have decided to publish a thin edition of Liquid Crystals Today. We do have some excellent articles being prepared, and we expect to publish an extended edition next time to include these.