Scientists Build World's Most Sensitive Scale

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Scientists Build World's Most Sensitive Scale

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday April 1, 2012 @09:03PM from the weighing-air dept.

Adrian Bachtold at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology in Barcelona has created the world's most sensitive scale. The new subatomic weight scale can measure masses as tiny as one yoctogram, less than the mass of a proton. From the article: "Bachtold hopes the scales could be used to distinguish different elements in chemical samples, which might differ only by a few protons. They might also diagnose health conditions by identifying proton-scale differences in molecular mass that are markers of disease."

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Buying one will put you on "the list" by pecosdave · 2012-04-01 21:07 · Score: 2, Insightful

It's bad enough that model builders have to worry about cops making a big deal about owning precision scales. Now they're worried about coke dealer splitting granules.

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1. Re:Buying one will put you on "the list" by xaxa · 2012-04-01 22:57 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  How precision is "precision"? What do model builders need, and what for?
  In Europe most people weigh cooking ingredients (rather than measure volume, as in the US). My pretty average digital kitchen balance cost about £15 and is accurate to 1g (up to 5kg).
  (I've also never bought coke. Is 1g a small enough amount, or do you need to measure 0.1g or whatever?)
2. Re:Buying one will put you on "the list" by vlm · 2012-04-01 23:35 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  How precision is "precision"? What do model builders need, and what for?
  Model railroad cars work best when all the cars have a certain specified mass. Too light and the odds of derailing increase, too heavy and the engine can't pull them. Also a "large" differential means that when going around curves you'll derail. If you're just taking premade or pre-designed cars out of a box you probably don't have to bother, but if you're substantially modifying the car, then it gets pretty important. I'm too lazy to look up the "standard mass for a N scale boxcar" but someone motivated could probably google for it. Obviously getting the G scale mass correct requires nothing more than a bathroom scale, but a N scale mass is going to require at least a very good kitchen scale, if not higher precision.
  The R/C planes and model rockets I built had a mass goal, where the designer believes a skilled builder should be able to get the completed airframe down to a certain weight. Theres not a heck of a lot you can do if you are over, other than evaluate your skill level, etc. Maybe enormous glue fillets cause more problems via weight than they gain in strength. I'm old enough to have caught the tail end of tissue and dope covering (monokote was dominant... have been out of the hobby for a 1/4 century, is monokote still dominant? If its such ancient history no one knows what it is, monokote was a mylar film with heat glue on one side that you'd stick to the wood with a special little iron, then a hair dryer made it slightly shink to eat the wrinkles along with of course warping the airframe a little). The relevant part of the tissue-dope covering method is its easy to make a strong covering that is as thick and heavy as a rain tarp, but the goal is to apply the dope thinly enough that it weighs nothing. Besides, that stuff was expensive, at least to a kid, so don't waste it. Most people lied about the weight of their models, "its one ounce below the designers spec" is codeword for "damn thing is a pound overweight and I can't figure out why"
  The R/C car people I hung with always weighed in the cars. Depending on your class of vehicle you had to be a certain mass. Too high or low was pretty strong evidence of modifications to a stock class car, and even the unlimited classes had certain limits, for safety and fairness I suppose. The track I ran at had a maximum weight, probably spec'd by insurance or just made up to fit the safety tires that protected the viewers.
  The RC helicopter guys I knew measured the weight of their blades as accurately as they could before they even attempted to balance on the razor-edge balancing thingy. If one blade weighs a tenth of a gram more than the other, its a waste of time to even begin balancing until they match on the scale.
  I'm old enough that the epoxy resin and hardener for fiberglass had to be weighed because of volumetric variation and temperature coefficient of expansion issues and if I recall the catalyst was shipped bare, without fillers, so the modern technique of "just squirt out equal volumes by size" didn't work. To do a small fiberglass repair, you'd squirt out a glob of epoxy resin that looked "about right" then measure it to be, perhaps, 22.0 grams. OK that means you need to carefully squirt out precisely 1.1 additional grams of catalyst, then mix and apply to the boat fiberglass. Too much catalyst means its weak and sets prematurely. Too little catalyst and maybe it wouldn't set at all, which was always an unholy PITA.
  "need" is not relevant to model building. Completely wrong word, at least for non-working models. You do not need a 1/24 scale model of a PanzerKampfwagon-IIIe or a R/C sailboat. You do not need to paint it the precisely correct color. "want" is the word you should have used. And the value of that "want" is nothing more than how much hobby money is available at the time of purchase. Its actually very much like watching TV... lots of "need need need" words but its really "want want want"
  
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3. Re:Buying one will put you on "the list" by drerwk · 2012-04-02 03:17 · Score: 2
  
  Smallish servos for RC are in the 1.5-8 gram range, and measured to the 1/10 gram. http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/23
  There are much smaller actuators - Plantraco MicroACT. Weight is 0.41 grams and it comes with a Nano connector. http://www.bsdmicrorc.com/index.php?productID=601
  Plantraco HingeACT as used on their Butterfly. Weight 0.22 gms.
  And I suspect that these are on among the heavier components of small planes. http://www.microflight.com/Micro-Butterfly-RTF-Set : Wingspan 3.5 inches (114mm) Flying Weight 2.6g
  So the whole airplane is 2.6g.
4. Re:Buying one will put you on "the list" by Dishevel · 2012-04-02 03:24 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Where ever you fall on the bell curve does not matter. If I want a scale that is accurate to 1/1000th of a gram for measuring flour then I should be able to buy one without government agencies drilling into my life. If I want cold medication I should not have to remember to bring my ID. At a certain point people have to tell their governments to "fuck right off". When we do not we lose our rights and our freedoms.
  
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Re:Identifying proton-scale differences... by Arrepiadd · 2012-04-01 21:20 · Score: 3, Informative

Well, mass spectrometers have the (slight) disadvantage of needing a charged "particle". if it's neutral (and for whatever reason you cannot charge it), this seems like a possible solution.
Granted, it looks like it has a lot of drawbacks of its own (like the heating part).
Have they fixed... by jtownatpunk.net · 2012-04-01 21:34 · Score: 3, Interesting

Have they fixed that whole "kilogram standard losing mass" thing yet?
1. Re:Have they fixed... by game+kid · 2012-04-01 21:43 · Score: 2
  
  It'll be a(nother) few years. *sigh*
  
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Which dynamic ? by KingofSpades · 2012-04-01 21:41 · Score: 2

Very interesting. However the article does not mention the maximum weight this scale is able to measure.
I'd love to know how many protons I am made of. I guess this scale won't help !
1. Re:Which dynamic ? by KingofSpades · 2012-04-01 21:53 · Score: 2
  
  Sure, I can compute this number with 2 significant digits. But with a scale which can measure masses to the nearest yoctogram I'd like 24 significant digits ! That's not what I call a Fermi problem. Going back to the original question, a wild guess would be a dynamic of 100. But I can't afford 18 dollars to read the paper. I could pay a yoctodollar, though !
Misread title. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-01 22:10 · Score: 5, Funny

I first read it as massive, so I thought it was about your mom. Then I re read it as smaller and realized they were making a scale for your penis.
Will this sensitive scale cry? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-01 22:16 · Score: 2, Funny

If you put this sensitive scale in front of a chick-flick, will it start crying when the lead character breaks up with her boyfriend or when she nurses a lost kitten back to health?
I'll have the salad :( by AbRASiON · 2012-04-01 22:19 · Score: 5, Funny

Hold the dressing, I've gained three yoctograms this week!
I was like 0mg! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-01 22:26 · Score: 5, Funny

Had to...
Re:New Scientist hyperbole by Guignol · 2012-04-01 23:10 · Score: 3, Informative

It's not the disease that is isotopic, it's the marker
Re:Identifying proton-scale differences... by paiute · 2012-04-01 23:30 · Score: 4, Informative

...I thought that's what mass spectrometers were for.
They are. High resolution mass specs measure down to 0.0001 amu (where 1 amu = the mass of a proton). I think the potential here is not for the resolution but the ability of the nanotube scale to measure the mass using a sample of only a few molecules, where a mass spec experiment will need to have a lot more than that injected into the detector.

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Will they make an american edition? by Thanshin · 2012-04-02 00:32 · Score: 2

How long until the american edition?
I want to measure my pressure in hundredths of yoctopounds per square pixie feet.
And, no, I don't know where I'll find a square pixie.
Re:USPS by GameboyRMH · 2012-04-02 01:11 · Score: 3, Funny

The airlines are probably placing pre-orders as we speak.

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Re:New Scientist hyperbole by uigrad_2000 · 2012-04-02 02:08 · Score: 2

That's the first thing that I thought of too, so I figured the article may specify that it was the "most sensitive spring scale" or "most sensitive balance", so that mass spectrometry instruments would be excluded.
But, after reading the very poorly made article, It looks like it is neither a scale nor a balance. Instead, a molecule of Xenon was placed on nanotubes, and the way that the nanotubes "vibrate" determines how much mass was resting upon them. The xenon does not form any bonds with the scale's surface, and I think the only interaction is gravitational, so maybe this could be considered a scale, in a way.
I would guess that another article with more precise wording exists some place, but I can't find any such article on the web.

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Re:Identifying proton-scale differences... by Mt._Honkey · 2012-04-02 05:09 · Score: 2

High resolution mass specs measure down to 0.0001 amu
My mass spectrometer (a Penning trap) routinely measures 1E-8 amu (10^-32 grams), and the best traps are pushing 1E-12 amu. They're getting to the point where they can see the chemical binding (mass-)energy between atoms in a molecule.
The method in the article is neat, but they've chosen a peculiar definition of "scale" in order to classify this as the most sensitive one.

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