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The smallest named unit in the metric system is the yoctogram, equal to 0.000000000000000000000001 grams. (Yes, that’s 24 zeros.) For a scale that can measure differences in mass as small as a yoctogram, which is on the order of the mass of a proton, physicists writing in Nature Nanotechnology turned to the wunderkind of nanotechnology: carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are tiny—though not quite yoctogram-tiny—sheets of carbon rolled up into a cylinder.
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Unlike your typical spring-powered scale, high-precision scales used to weigh the smallest materials use carbon nanotubes which vibrate at different frequencies depending on the mass on them. However, a group of scientists at the Ca... Read Post

The world's most sensitive scale, which functions by measuring the vibration frequency of carbon nanotubes when a mass is rested upon them, can now measure the mass of a single proton. That...is pretty lightweight. Like probably les... Read Post

A new subatomic weight scale can measure masses as tiny as one yoctogram. Less than the mass of a proton, a yoctogram is equivalent to a billionth of a billionth of a millionth of a gram. More » Read Post