Interesting things happen when particles are confined in a tiny box.
On top of this sandwich sits a metal gate electrode which attracts electrons into the dot and controls the arrival or departure of electrons one at a time. The pairing has not yet been explained but the data strongly suggest that it arises from a novel quantum effect that develops whenever electrons are localized into spatially isolated regions within the dots. The goal now is to understand the underlying pairing mechanism. The nucleus would partially disintegrate en route, but would still arrive at Earth with a potent energy.