NCM — Looking back — Moving forward

Abstract This closing contribution, offers the opportunity to look back through the history of the origins of this conference series in 1974–76. The intellectual challenges of that time are outlined, with some assessment of the changes as recorded in NCM, then and now. Coming back to this subject after an absence of about six years, controversies that were alive in the early years of the last decade feature prominently in the discussion. Medium-range spatial anisotropy continues to prove difficult to access using scattering techniques. Structural relationships between liquids, glasses and crystals also present problems. These issues are still current and are emphasised as challenges, and opportunities, for the future development of the subject.