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The article presents a study on electrons, conducted by Alexander Föhlsich and colleagues at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The study was published in the vol. 436 of the journal "Nature." The study reports that electrons can hop between atoms in a mere 320 quintillionths of a second. The researchers used a core-hole clock to time electrons as they zipped from a sulphur atom to an adjacent ruthenium metal surface. The researchers fired X-rays at the sulphur, causing an electron near the atom's centre to become excited and jump, leaving behind an empty "core-hole" in its place. They found it in a nearby ruthenium atom, meaning that it had gone across in a bit less time than it took to fill the core-hole.