GOLD CHAINS ARE PRIZED not only as jewelry but also for their atomic properties. By plunging a scanning microscope probe into a gold surface and then retracting the tip a string of several (perhaps as many as seven) gold atoms can be produced. The binding strength between atoms in the chain is at least about half that between atoms in bulk gold and so the chain is somewhat stable. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) pictures of the chains seem to indicate that the atoms are much as 4 to 5 angstroms apart, but other measurements, such as conductance tests, imply the gap was more like 3 angstroms or less. So what are the gold atoms doing? This puzzle is addressed by a group of scientists from several Spanish labs (plus a contingent at the University of Illinois - contact Daniel Sanchez-Portal, daniel@roma.physics.uiuc.edu) whose computer simulations suggest that the atoms lie not on a straight line but on a zig-zag (spaced about 2.5 angstroms apart) and that, furthermore, the chain should be spinning around its long axis (see a figure at www.aip.org/png). The TEM pictures would then be explained as capturing only a misleadingly averaged position for the gold atoms. Knowledge of where the gold atoms are and what they're doing is important to those hoping to develop circuitry using nanowires. (Sanchez-Portal et al., Physical Review Letters, 8 November 1999; Select Article.)