Innovative Instrumentation for Analysis of Nanoparticles: The π Steradian Detector

Abstract

The analysis was finally completed, the data graphed, and I had to admit to myself, it was looking like an auspicious moment. Only a few weeks earlier, Charlie Lyman and I had been discussing a project that I had been working on for some time, one in which I was admittedly being deliberately vague concerning the details. However, I had promised to keep him updated when it succeeded. Given the date (April 1st) and the data in hand, I couldn't resist sharing with him (and a few colleagues) the first results from that experiment—and my thinly veiled attempt at a quasi-April Fools Day joke. After we exchanged a number of emails that day, Charlie concluded his last message with the line that many of us have heard from both him and Ron Anderson: “A little more text and you can have an article in the July issue of MT.” Have I gotten you curious? Well then read on!