Everyday Scientist

the einstein

March 8, 2007 at 10:14 am | sam | literature, nerd

My favorite unit is the einstein, or a mole of photons. What a silly unit! Until ecently, I had never actually seen the einstein in use. Until I read a recent paper, that is:

For 7.0 nM spiro nanoparticles and a photon flux of 2.8 x 10^-9 einstein (260 nm > > 390 nm), it takes ~30 s to switch a 1-cm cuvette from green fluorescence to red fluorescence (Figure 1C); the reverse process under photon flux of 8-10 x 10^-9 einstein ( > 515 nm) requires ~20 min.

I’m not sure why 2.8 x 10^-9 einstein is any easier than writing 1.7 x 10¹⁵ photons.

You know what? I want the sam to be a mole of femtopennies. How old were you when you made your first sam?