atoms

This blew me away today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22364761 Did IBM need to use Inert gases (group 8) atoms to do this, or can many other atoms become so 'singular' and nonreactive on a quantum (?) level to allow such manipulations?

I just came across this totally amazing new computer graphic via StumbleUpon: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/525347 I never knew "small" could be so small, and "big" could be so big! Hope you like it.

Is it true that there are atoms within our bodies that once formed part of William Shakespeare's body, by virtue of his decomposition, dispersion and our digestion? If so, and by the same token, who, and indeed what else, can we both boast to be, and, of course, refrain from acknowledging...

Well, not actual photos in the optical sense (hence the quotes)... but now technology has advanced to the point where the electronic structure of atoms can now be resolved using a technique called Field Emission Electron Microscopy (FEEM)...

Okay, I understand that atoms can lose an electron to become positively charge, or gain an electron to become negatively charges. That is ionization. Um, so, uh... Why would anyone do this? What does ionization do to an atom? What does it take to ionize anything? How long does ionization...

The history of claims of invisibility dates back reliably to the ancient Chinese hermit Zhun Laogung, of the Sichuan mountains. Legend has it that as a last resort, when surrounded for miles on all sides by Emperor Lao's foot soldiers (who were hunting down rebellous individuals), he used his...

I haven't seen this mentioned here. http://www.littleatoms.com/home.htm

I know that Atoms are the basic building blocks of all matter and that there are a little under or over 114 of them and that when they are mixed together they become different elements or combinations of elements like chemical bonds are, but why do atoms exist in the first place?

I dont know if someone told me this our I read it somewhere, but here it is. " Atoms dont last forever, It may take bilhons and bilhons of years, but they will colapse" I know this is true for some atoms, like plutonio. but what about the others? Are they perfectly stable and will last forever?