"The team bombarded atoms of neon gas with near-infrared laser light in 10-15 second pulses and ultraviolet pulses of far shorter durations of just 180 attoseconds (remember, an attosecond is one billionth of one billionth of one second). The near-IR light served as an attosecond chronograph, measuring the time of UV impact and the time the electrons exited their orbits… they found that electron ejection is not a 'time zero' action as once presumed, but that excited electrons hesitate very, very briefly before leaving the atom."
-Scientists in Germany have made history by recording the shortest time interval ever measured in nature: the 20 attoseconds it takes to separate an electron from its host atom with high-intensity lasers. This might have something to do with why it was so difficult for kids to win at phone-in television video-game contests like TV Powww! and Pixxx! in the early 1980s. And is also a good analogy for what happened the first time some of those same kids had sex.