Breakthrough could pave the way for next-generation GPS in drones, smartphones and self-driving cars, scientists say.

Scientists have taken another giant step towards building the most precise clock ever imagined—one that could display not only the passage of time, but shifting rules of nature itself. An ...

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 ...

For many years, cesium atomic clocks have been reliably keeping time around the world. But the future belongs to even more accurate clocks: optical atomic clocks. In a few years' time, they could ...

Every single day, humans rely on hundreds of hidden clocks. GPS location, Internet stability, stock trading, power grid management ... all rely on atomic clocks in order to work. Many of those clocks ...

In 2008, a team of UCLA-led scientists proposed a scheme to use a laser to excite the nucleus of thorium atoms to realize extremely accurate, portable clocks. Last year, they realized this ...

At this point, atomic clocks are old news. They’ve been quietly keeping our world on schedule for decades now, and have been through several iterations with each generation gaining more accuracy. They ...

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

It's Memorial Day, Short Wavers. This holiday, we bring you a meditation on time ... and clocks. There are hundreds of atomic clocks in orbit right now, perched on satellites all over Earth. We depend ...