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 ...

A team of physicists has discovered a surprisingly simple way to build nuclear clocks using tiny amounts of rare thorium. By ...

Atomic clocks and frequency standards represent the pinnacle of precision timekeeping technology. By harnessing the natural oscillatory behaviour of atoms, these devices deliver unparalleled accuracy ...

Smaller version Illustration of a conventional atomic fountain clock (left) next to NPL’s miniature atomic fountain clock.

Since 1947 -- after the end of World War II and at the beginning of the Cold War -- the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have kept what they call a "Doomsday Clock." ...

Which atomic clocks are best? The first time zone, Greenwich Mean Time, was established in the late 1600s to assist sailors before the invention of the train and railway in the mid-1800s expanded the ...

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 ...

There's a new record holder for the most accurate clock in the world. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have improved their atomic clock based on a trapped ...

NIST scientists have published results establishing a new atomic clock, NIST-F4, as one of the world’s most accurate timekeepers, priming the clock to be recognized as a primary frequency standard — ...