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 ...

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 ...

Nobel laureate Arthur Schawlow’s advice to “never measure anything but frequency” is a central principle of modern precision metrology and timekeeping. Today’s spectroscopy is advanced enough to teach ...

Researchers are looking for new ways to improve timekeeping because even small gains in stability can help physicists discover subtle physical effects. The thorium-229 nuclear clock is a newer venture ...