system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What Do Atoms Really "Look Like"?

And what is really happening at the atomic level when two solids 'touch'?
gpt
For something to be visible to us, light would have to bounce off it in to our eyes. Atoms are so small that that model just doesn't work. Photons of light can interact with atoms in strange ways or not at all. For example, a LASER works by bombarding atoms with light so that one of their electrons is temporarily bumped in to a higher orbit. When it drops back out of that orbit, the atom emits a photon of light. Multiply that effect by billions or trillions and you have a LASER.