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Physics

Most accurate clock ever can tick for 40 billion years without error

The record for the most accurate clock has been broken in an experiment with strontium atoms almost as cold as absolute zero, and it is twice as accurate as any predecessor

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

27 March 2024

An extremely accurate optical clock

NIST/R. Jacobson

The most accurate clock in the world will lose less than 1 second every 40 billion years, or around three times the current age of the universe. While we have no direct need for such extreme timekeeping, the clock could help investigations in multiple areas of physics, including detecting dark matter.

Read more

Do we create space-time? A new perspective on the fabric of reality

At the core of the clock, built by Alexander Aeppli at the University of Colorado Boulder and his colleagues, are about…

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