For the Majorana experiment, physicists have made their own purified form of copper underground some of the purest on the planet and built an underground machine shop to make parts with the copper.

WSJ: Physicists Look for Dark Matter Underground

It's never happened before that we've fired a very large bullet that's made largely of copper and aluminum, the size of a washing machine, at a comet that's about--the comet's nucleus is about four or five miles across--to make a big crater.

NPR: NASA 'Deep Impact' Probe Targets Comet