  This paper seeks to synthesize much recent work on the HTSC materials around
the latest energy resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) results from
Davis and coworkers. The STM conductance diffuse scattering results in
particular are employed as point of entry to discuss bosonic modes, both of
condensed and uncondensed form. The bosonic mode picture is essential to
understanding an ever growing range of observations within the HTSC field. The
work is expounded within the context of the site-inhomogeneous negative-U
boson-fermion modelling long advocated by the author. This general approach is
presently seeing much theoretical development, into which I have looked to
couple many of the experimental advances. While this formal theory is not yet
sufficiently detailed to cover adequately all the experimental complexities
presented by the real cuprate systems, it is clear it affords very appreciable
support to the line taken. An attempt is made throughout to clarify why and how
it is that these novel circumstances and phenomena are tied so very closely to
this particular set of materials.
