Counting millions of electrons, one by one. (National Institute of Standards and Technology's electron pump counts electrons with great accuracy)(Brief Article)

From: Science News | Date: August 10, 1996| Author: | Copyright information

In his "Foundation" series, science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov coined the phrase "I don't give an electron" to mean "I couldn't care less." Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., however, care about every electron in their pursuit of accurate electrical measurements.

Mark W. Keller and his coworkers at NIST have developed an electron pump that shunts electrons one by one onto a capacitor for storage. They have used the pump to count millions of electrons, missing, on average, only 1 in 70 million, they claim.

"With this device, ...

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