In the foreground, a researcher holds a peice of aircraft engine alloy broken in one of their experiments. In the background is a compliation of images taken with a scanning electron microsope and a show a visual representation of atomic slip -- the nanoscale mechanism behind metal failure. (IMAGE)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

In the foreground, a researcher holds a peice of aircraft engine alloy broken in one of their experiments. In the background is a compliation of images taken with a scanning electron microsope and a show a visual representation of atomic slip -- the nanoscale mechanism behind metal failure.

Caption

The foreground shows a fractured sample of an alloy used in aircraft engines. In the background, each color represents an orientation of the metal’s crystal structure. The gray lines indicate a specific measurement and inform how the metal deforms. The color of the lines indicates how intensely the atoms have been disrupted as a result of mechanical loading.

Credit

Fred Zwicky

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