"Ten million atoms isn't cool, you know what's cool? Ten thousand atoms" *
Occasionally Asked Questions
Is this a blog? Can I leave a comment? No, and no. But if you find msitakes in our work or information on this site, please let us know and we'll post the corrections.
"Ten thousand atoms ... " Apologies to Aaron Sorkin ("The Social Network") for mangling your quote. It's easy to measure Be-10 at a concentration of ten million atoms per gram. Ten thousand atoms per gram is starting to get difficult.
One gram of quartz (SiO2) contains 3 * 6.0221 x 1023 / (28.0855 + (2 * 15.9994)) = 3.007 x 1022 atoms, so 104 atom/(g quartz) corresponds to a concentration of 3.3 x 10-19 atom/atom, less than a part per billion of a part per billion.
Do you have any pictures of penguins? Yes, they're here. This one is probably the most-visited page on our site.
Group leader "I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective". More here. Probably more than you really wanted.
Group leader What this really means is that I'm responsible for donuts at the weekly group meeting.