January 13, 2014

Weighing particles at the attogram scale


New device from MIT can measure masses as small as one millionth of a trillionth of a gram, in solution.

MIT engineers have devised a way to measure the mass of particles with a resolution better than an attogram — one millionth of a trillionth of a gram. Weighing these tiny particles, including both synthetic nanoparticles and biological components of cells, could help researchers better understand their composition and function