In the example you cite, the colors you see arise from excitation of copper atoms.

"There is only one agency that I can think of that could selectively remove copper atoms from the wire."

Even now they are removing copper atoms and letting them flow into the air of this compartment.

"I think the copper atoms are a bit too far apart for such bonding," he said.

The later case, copper atoms are replaced by zinc to give a stronger alloy than the mother metal.

But the new superconductors are called antiferromagnets; every other copper atom has the opposite spin.

The electrons which circle the copper atom interact with the light in a way to make copper color.

This result is consistent with the fact that copper atoms from the electrode are not involved in the chemical reaction model for the cell.

Every copper atom has one very loose electrons.

Any possible operation on the copper atom, such as splitting, must necessarily absorb vastly more energy than it produces.