MIT's New Tabletop Particle Detector Sees Individual Electrons

An anonymous reader writes: Scientists at MIT have created a small, tabletop particle detector capable of identifying individual electrons within a cloud of radioactive gas. "As the radioactive krypton gas decays, it emits electrons that vibrate at a baseline frequency before petering out; this frequency spikes again whenever an electron hits an atom of radioactive gas. As an electron ping-pongs against multiple atoms in the detector, its energy appears to jump in a step-like pattern." The researchers used the detector to record the activity of 100,000 different electrons within the gas (abstract). They're hoping that with enough data about how the electrons bounce around, they'll be able to pinpoint the amount of energy released during these krypton atom decay events. Once they know how much energy is released, they can figure out the mass of a neutrino, which is also emitted during the decay.

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[amias]

and then we will finally be able to pinpoint supermans lair

Re:Do electrons vibrate?

[wonkey_monkey]

and clingy relationships with protons.

But usually the protons are shacked up with neutrons, so the electrons are forced to keep their distance.