Physicists are quietly rewriting one of the most basic units in science, using a new generation of optical clocks that can keep time so precisely they barely lose a beat over the age of the universe.

Researchers from six countries conducted the largest coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date. The measurements amount to the largest coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date, and ...

Researchers demonstrated a new optical atomic clock that uses a single laser and doesn't require cryogenic temperatures. By greatly reducing the size and complexity of atomic clocks without ...

Optical lattice clocks are emerging timekeeping devices based on tens of thousands of ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice (i.e., a grid of laser light). By oscillating between two distinct ...

Improvements in clocks are setting the stage for a redefinition of the second. This is an Inside Science story. (Inside Science) -- Earlier this year, in a nondescript lab at the National Institute of ...

WASHINGTON — In a new study, researchers carried out the most extensive coordinated comparison of optical clocks to date by operating clocks and the links connecting them simultaneously across six ...

The way time is measured is on the edge of a historic upgrade. At the heart of this change is a new kind of atomic clock that uses light instead of microwaves. This shift means timekeeping could ...

Researchers have shown how ultrastable optical signals from optical clocks can be transmitted across tens of kilometers of deployed multicore fiber carrying telecommunications data. Nazanin Hoghooghi, ...

EUROPE — Every clock in your house probably tells a slightly different time. Now picture those clocks as the most precise instruments humanity has ever built, so accurate that they wouldn’t lose or ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Scientists have taken a major step toward the ambitious global goal ...