Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Close up of pink-colored laser beam inside lab instrument. Now, physicists at the US National Institute of Standards and ...

Phase-coherent lasers are crucial for many precision tasks, including timekeeping. Here on Earth the most stable optical ...

Ultra precise Chinese lattice clock joins international system, challenging decades of US dominance in global timekeeping ...

The best timepieces tend to be fragile, but a device based on iodine threads the needle between precision and practicality. Atomic clocks are usually either ultra-precise or sturdy, but not both. Now, ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched one of its most precise science experiments to date — the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES)—to the International Space Station (ISS). This is no ...

The field of optical atomic clocks, in combination with ultracold atoms, has transformed precision timekeeping and metrology. By utilising laser-cooled atoms confined in optical lattices, researchers ...

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Picture a clock ...

Inside a laboratory nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, amid a labyrinth of lenses, mirrors, and other optical machinery bolted to a vibration-resistant table, an apparatus resembling a ...

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 timekeeping device is made with atomic nuclei of thorium, although it is not yet more precise than standard atomic clocks. Reading time 2 minutes Meet the “nuclear” clock: a device that marks the ...

The heart of a minuscule atomic clock—believed to be 100 times smaller than any other atomic clock—has been demonstrated by scientists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and ...