1.   Atomic oxygen, found only on the fringes of the atmosphere or in controlled conditions in the laboratory, consists of single atoms.

2.   Banks and Miller aimed their atomic oxygen gun at a smudge of lipstick applied to part of the canvas stretched and wrapped around the frame.

3.   Banks and Miller were also delighted to discover that the atomic oxygen did not disturb some charcoal markings on the backs of the canvases.

4.   In the tests, atomic oxygen bonded with the carbon-based residue, turning it into carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water.

5.   Now researchers in New Mexico have come up with a less damaging technique that burns off surface contaminants with atomic oxygen.

6.   Other instruments recorded the soft luminance on some shuttle surfaces as the ship strikes stray particles of atomic oxygen high above Earth.

7.   So Banks and Miller offered to come to the Warhol Museum and use a handheld device to apply atomic oxygen to selected areas.

8.   The findings should help engineers assess how electrical fields interfere with some satellite communications and the corrosive effects of atomic oxygen.

9.   The NASA researchers then exposed the samples to atomic oxygen in a vacuum chamber.

10.   The scientists then placed these smoke-damaged test samples in the low-pressure chamber at their NASA lab and bombarded them with atomic oxygen.