LES CAGES AUX CARBON & BRASS: Materials science professor Jim Shackleford is interested in the cage-like geometry of the 60-atom molecule known as the "Buckyball" and the arrangements of atoms in brass. The arrangement of atoms in brass illustrates the nature of a solid solution. The copper (solvent) atoms are green, and the zinc (solute) atoms are purple. His research group aims to better understand the nature of the structure of materials on the atomic scale, which can help explain why materials behave as they do in practical applications and lead to the development of new types of materials. Using a Silicon Graphics workstation, graduate student Lilian Davila generated these close-up computer simulations of atomic structures.