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Monday, 1st September 2008 (5106 views)

Researchers have developed new technology that can measure the mass of a single atom of gold, it has emerged.

Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) have created a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) that functions as a scale to measure molecules, according to Nanotechnology Today.

They discovered that a gold atom has a mass of 3.25 x ten to 25 kilograms.

Alex Zettl, who led the study, holds joint positions at Berkeley Lab's material sciences division and UC's physics department.

Two other members of his research group, Kenneth Jensen and Kwanpyo Kim, worked with him.

Mr Zettl commented: "For the past 15 years or so, the holy grail of NEMS has been to push them to a small enough size with high enough sensitivity so that they might resolve the mass of a single molecule or even single atom."

Gold nanotechnology has been the subject of numerous studies, including a recent one from the University of Texas about its use in cancer treatment.

 

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