"electron capture" refers to a process in which an atom's nucleus captures one of its own orbiting electrons, causing the number of electrons in the atom to decrease by one. This typically occurs when an atom is unstable and wants to achieve a more stable state.
Full definition
In order for K - 40 to decay
by electron capture, there has to be an electron (for the radioactive nucleus) to capture.
This decay mainly occurs due to positron emission; however, around — % of the time, it is a result
of electron capture.
An optimal enzyme system would directly
transfer electrons captured from a chemical reaction to an electrode surface — ideally, to use enzymes immobilized on the surface of an electrode.
No electrons,
no electron capture.
And so one can find that the half life of K - 40 in interstellar space is different from the half life on Earth, because
this electron capture process is very unlikely to happen.
In two other papers Vuckovic took a different approach to
electron capture, by modifying a single crystal to trap light in what is called a color center.
The electron capture detector, as I called it, boasted a level of sensitivity unheard of at the time and never bettered since.
Therefore,
the electron captures the missing energy required for tunneling from the nearby quantum device, and hence the device loses energy and cools down.
Wikipedia: Lovelock invented
the electron capture detector, which ultimately assisted in discoveries about the persistence of CFCs and their role in stratospheric ozone depletion.
He invented
the electron capture detector, which has greatly enhanced our ability to detect small quantities of pollutants, and was critical to the detection of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere and the attribution of their responsibility for ozone depletion.
His invention of
an electron capture device that was able to detect tiny amounts of chemicals enabled other scientists both to understand the dangers of DDT to the egshells of birds and to figure out the ways in which chlorofluorocarbons were eroding the ozone layer.
Lovelock's invention of
the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement.