For the first time, an international team of physicists has successfully harnessed a rare orbital transition in atoms of ...

On a campus in Boulder, Colorado, time just became a little more exact. Inside the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, a new atomic clock named NIST-F4 has begun to tick — not ...

Atomic clocks are the most accurate timekeepers we have, losing only seconds across billions of years. But apparently that’s not accurate enough – nuclear clocks could steal their thunder, speeding up ...

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 ...

For decades, atomic clocks have provided the most stable means of timekeeping. They measure time by oscillating in step with the resonant frequency of atoms, a method so accurate that it serves as the ...

Clocks on Earth are ticking a bit more regularly thanks to NIST-F4, a new atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, Colorado. NIST-F4 measures an ...

Scientists have developed the most precise and accurate atomic clock to date – if you ran it for twice the current age of the universe, it would only be off by one second. This could not only improve ...

Smaller version Illustration of a conventional atomic fountain clock (left) next to NPL’s miniature atomic fountain clock. (Courtesy: NPL) A miniature version of an atomic fountain clock has been ...