Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Physicists Watch Individual Electrons Flow

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the going-with-the-flow dept.

SG writes "Physicists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed the world's most sensitive ammeter yet. The device allows current to be measured at the attoampere level and is expected to be of use in nanoelectronics, calibration devices, quantum computation and biology."

9 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's a picture of the ammeter in action.

  2. Cool! by Crazyscottie · · Score: 5, Funny

    So now ol' Ben Franklin can finally see which direction electrons really flow!

    --
    Just because it can't be explained doesn't mean it isn't true. Science fits into reality... not the other way around.
  3. Re:WHY!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's alright. I'm sure there is no electrical activity in your brain. You're safe. :-)

  4. Look at that one go! by vldragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before you read any of the article and just say the headline: "Physicists Watch Individual Electrons Flow" did anyone think of a bunch of guys in white lab coats looking down at a table with money in their fists betting on electron races? Because I did... And boy was it disturbing... Gambling physicists can be very rude. (At least the ones in my head are)

    --
    Eating the brains of your enemies does not make you smarter. But it's still fun.
    1. Re:Look at that one go! by Cheapy · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Damnit Jones! You altered the race event by observing it!"

      --
      Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
    2. Re:Look at that one go! by Ignominious+Cow+Herd · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Who won the race!?"

      "I dunno, but there's a dead cat in this box over here."

      --
      Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
  5. Re:Current, tunneling ? by yincrash · · Score: 4, Funny

    what?

  6. For an unknow reason by this+great+guy · · Score: 4, Funny

    For an unknow reason, their device automatically falls into sleep mode after having counted too many electrons.

  7. Exciting as watching... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny
    Physicists Watch Individual Electrons Flow

    ...paint dry.

    Ahh, the wayward electron...

    An Electron's Longings
    The electron
    at the edge of the valence band
    said:

    I stand upon the edge
    Condemned by fate's cruel hand
    To lie in a state of perpetual freeze
    With energy lacking to do a trapeze
    Across to freedom's higher land

    There are many who have risen beyond
    Coulombic forces. They blisfully exist
    Unshelled. Their orbitals know no bond.
    With carefree abandon they diffuse and drift.

    Will no photon shine a light ?
    Will no dopant lend a hand ?
    To conquer Fermi's improbable height
    To leap into the conduction band !
    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .