Abstract
A review is given of some remarkable interfacial phenomena exhibited by materials such as liquid crystals and amphiphilic molecules. Emphasis is placed on recent evidence of peculiar molecular ordering at the interface not found in the bulk. The nature of the ordering is often quite unexpected and sometimes contradicts our intuitive feelings. Because the common feature of the molecular ordering is high density and a high degree of orientational and in some cases positional order, it is proposed that the interfaces be used as a field for molecular manipulation in the preparation of new materials.