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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sarah Wells

Do atoms ever touch?

A psychedelic-style illustration of two hands touching while holding an abstract orb.

From nearly indestructible metals, like tungsten, to delicate clouds in the sky, atoms make up everything around us. But do these atoms ever touch each other? As with most topics in atomic physics, the answer is more complicated than you might expect.

Before we can answer this question, it's important to define what we mean by "touch," said Christopher Baird, an associate professor of physics at West Texas A&M University.

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