TRIPLE PHOTOIONIZATION OF LITHIUM, a rare process in which a single photon removes all three electrons simultaneously from nature's third-lightest atom, has been detected for the first time by a Japan-US collaboration (Ivan Sellin, University of Tennessee, isellin@utk.edu). Studying this process further promises deep insights into the interactions that can occur between a trio of electrons and therefore a more sophisticated understanding of the interplay between charged particles in many environments such as stars. At the Photon Factory in Japan, an intense beam of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) photons broadsided a beam of lithium atoms; a detector then recorded the rare process by collecting Li³⁺ ions. In the most simplified picture of the process, an EUV photon deposits virtually all its energy into a single electron; the electron immediately shares enough energy with the other two so that they could all escape the Li atom. The three-electron interactions are relatively easy to extract from the data since the photon vanishes after striking the atom, and the heavier lithium nucleus acts merely as a sluggish "spectator." Researchers have observed triple photoionization of heavier atoms, such as neon, but such processes are typically more complicated events involving internal rearrangements of other electrons in the atom. (R. Wehlitz et al., Physical Review Letters, 31 August 1998.)