Examination of the patent literature reveals some orthoester 2,6,9-trioxabicyclo-<2.2.2>-octane derivitives (conveniently prepared via the action of boron trifluoride diethyl etherate on a suitable hydroxylmethyloxetane ) which are homologous in structure to DIO, although these materials are not reported to exhibit the NF phase. Some pyran homologues of DIO have been reported, and while these exhibit the conventional nematic phase the NF is absent, as is also the case for the closely related 1,3-dioxan-5-yclobutyl and pyrrolidine homologues. This brings us to an important point. The properties of novel LC materials are routinely measured as low concentration solutions in off-the-shelf nematic hosts, rather than as pure materials. Ordinarily this is quite acceptable, however in the case of the NF phase this masks the polar order and gives only a conventional nematic phase. Therefore it seems reasonable to this author that there could exist a substantial pool of materials that exhibit the NF phase yet have not been characterised as such. Fortuitously, methods have been developed that enable rapid identification of the ferroelectric nematic via microscopy, and this would appear to be an attractive direction for future studies.