Number 203 (Story #2), November 17, 1994 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein ATOMIC LONG JUMP. When a metal atom is put down on a crystal surface the atom will move about. It was thought that the atom (referred to as an "adatom") would randomly migrate from one binding site to an adjacent site. Experiments at the University of Illinois with isolated palladium atoms on a tungsten substrate have shown that an adatom can occasionally jump to as far as two or three sites away. The mechanism for these long jumps is not yet known. (Donna Cowell Senft and Gert Ehrlich, Physical Review Letters, upcoming article.)