At a teaching workshop in Boulder, CO, I sat in Hasitha Mahabaduge’s lecture on Newtonian mechanics, where he humorously introduced the apple falling on Newton’s head. This is a first topic for many physics, chemistry and engineering students.  I began looking for a meaningful and natural representation of the falling apple and snapped this photo outside of a certified LEED Platinum building on the National Renewable Energy Lab’s campus.  Notice their placement on the ground.  These tiny apples mimic nucleation and growth that is important to semiconductor processing and can be experienced on a typical walk by a tree.  Periodic wells formed between the bricks fill to minimize the system’s energy.  This scene has me comparing the pattern of apples with arrangement of atoms on a material’s surface.  Newton’s apple(s) continue to inspire!