locs,labels = yticks()
yticks(locs, map(lambda x: "%.1f" % x, locs*1e9))
text(0.0, 1.01, '1e-9', fontsize=10, transform = gca().transAxes)
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3677368/matplotlib-format-axis-offset-values-to-whole-numbers-or-specific-number