Number 245 (Story #3), October 18, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein SUBSURFACE ISLANDS---A NEW GROWTH MODE . Lead and copper are normally immiscible in bulk; one would expect that adding copper atoms to a lead substrate would result in the buildup of copper islands at the surface. But now scientists at the Technical University of Vienna in Austria and the University of Osnabruck in Germany have observed (with a scanning tunneling microscope) the growth of tiny three-dimensional copper islands (3-11 layers thick) in the body of a lead substrate. The Cu chunks are paved over with a single layer of Pb atoms. (C. Nagl et al., Physical Review Letters, 16 October 1995.)