A nanoparticle revealed the tiny impact of a single gas atom

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorPhysicists have measured the push from a single gas atom hitting a glass sphere one hundred nanometers across, Science News reports.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA single atom. And I'd like to say, it made contact with confidence.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNormally a gas pushes with many atoms at once.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThis time the team isolated one lone particle's force, with a laser holding the sphere in a vacuum chamber.

5. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA laser-levitated sphere. I'd call that a premium listening environment.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe sphere weighed about a quadrillionth of a gram. That's still ten million times the mass of the atom it was feeling.

7. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorTen million times heavier. And the atom still got its message across.

8. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorEach hit was as small as a billionth of a Newton, lasting one ten-trillionth of a second.

9. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo what's it for?

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYale physicist Yu-Han Tseng says it could sense very low pressure, like in space, and you could imagine putting it on another planet.

11. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo the plan is to fly it somewhere with no air, to feel the air.

12. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHank, in a vacuum, nobody can hear you doubt it.