Countdown to a nuclear clock: a three minute guide

Precise timekeeping helps us in our daily lives: from pinpointing your precise location with GPS to synchronising financial deals to the millisecond, and physicists are also seeking ever more accurate measurements of time, as super-accurate clocks could help make planet-sized telescopes, hunt for dark matter or even monitor the shape of the planet from the air.
So researchers are working on a nuclear clock - a device that would harness the energy levels of the nucleus of an atom to act as a timekeeper.
Now, they've got closer than ever, by making extremely accurate measurements of the frequency of light required to push thorium nuclei into a higher energy state - potentially defining the tick of a future nuclear clock.
Read the paper: www.nature.com...

[@ألفوثيقةووثيقة]

Merci beaucoup chère "Nature" pour la traduction. J'aimerai bien que ça continue pour les thèmes suivants .Merci encore .

[@tuananhnguyen4983]

I think atomic movement will shed light on how the universe is expanding or swirling into something more.

[@absolute___zero]

So ..... clocks are good stuff, but can you tell me if time is discrete or continuous? If it is discrete, then we are living in a computer, because in computers there must be some "engine" to do the increment operation for the clock

[@willemvandebeek]

Best wishes for the new year, Nature team! :)

[@tompike7239]

Great summary 👏

[@xxzsa6195]

Oh... It's about precision of clocks. I was like: talking about doomsday clock on January 1st is a weird choice.

[@amorphant]

Truly not looking to leave one of *those* comments, but the host has one of the most unusual and interesting manefistations of cuteness I've ever seen. Kudos on the genes, ma'am. Keep up the expressive reporting.

[@E.lectricityNorth]

NIST said in 2010 that its precise aluminum atomic clocks kept time accurately enough to only lose 1 second every 3.7 billion years. Why is the thorium clock big news, 14+ years later?

[@benediktgocht8555]

The thorium clock is using a nuclear energy transition, whereas other, normal atomic clocks use electronic energy transitions. While notmal atomic clocks are more precise right now, the thorium clock has the potential to be much more precise down the line as well as being much more robust and easier to handle. As said in the video, the electronic energy transitions are quite easily disturbed by outside influences such as magnetic fields, so you need a lot of shielding and protection for the clock, meaning those clocks are huge and heavy. The nuclear energy transitions are much less easily disturbed, so less shielding is required, making the thing much less bulky and heavy as well as cheaper, a potential 'table-top atomic clock' is envisioned.

[@gregsop]

Удивительно мало комментариев и лайков. Спасибо за материал 😊

[@iamdmc]

squint, tilt head, gyrate, bulge eyeballs, repeat

[@qwaqwa1960]

2nd camera angle: Very affected & ridiculous...

[@AdityaMehendale]

Effing side-camera again.. WHY!!!!!???