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Record Breaking Clock Accurate to one Second in 15 Billion Years

posted by martyb on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the let-the-good-times-roll dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Physicists have said they have fine-tuned an atomic clock to the point where it won’t lose or gain a second in 15bn years – longer than the universe has existed.

The “optical lattice” clock ( http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150421/ncomms7896/full/ncomms7896.html ), which uses strontium atoms, is now three times more accurate than a year ago when it set the previous world record, its developers reported in the journal Nature Communications.

The advance brings science a step closer to replacing the current gold standard in timekeeping: the caesium fountain clock that is used to set Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official world time.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/22/record-breaking-clock-invented-which-only-loses-a-second-in-15-billion-years

[Also Covered By]: http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/22/8466681/most-accurate-atomic-clock-optical-lattice-strontium

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:55PM

    by Tork (3914) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:55PM (#174107)
    Comment 2?!?! Oh DAMMIT I shouldn't have previewed!
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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:57PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:57PM (#174109)

    You just had a little accuracy issue...