Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Nist: New Optical Clock More Accurate Than Cesium

Posted by chrisd on from the lonely-exhibitionsist-ion dept.

LordPhatal writes "NIST researchers have demonstrated a new kind of atomic clock that has the potential to be up to 1,000 times more accurate than today's best clock. The new clock is based on an energy transition in a single trapped mercury ion.

5 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. no excuse now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Damn, now it's gonna be even harder to pass off my being late.

    GOD, those interuption adds are HUGE!!!

  2. And in a year, they'll be using alcohol instead. by tunah · · Score: 4, Funny

    Duh! When this clock breaks the mercury will go everywhere! They already went through this phase with thermometers.

    --
    Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
  3. Now we need a whole new... by itwerx · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...nursery rhyme to replace Hickory Dickory Dock:

    Flappity floppity flip,
    A mouse on a moebius strip,
    The strip revolved,
    The mouse dissolved,
    In a chronodimensional skip!

    :)

  4. Re:And in a year, they'll be using alcohol instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    well, ONE single ion can only go SOMEwhere, not EVERYwhere, unless they know its momentum very precisely.

  5. A second? by bobdole369 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I always thought a second was saying "one one-thousand" or "one Mississippi" (gotta say it quick) or "One potato". at least thats how it was back when I played 2-hand touch football. You could only blitz when you counted to five or ten using one of the above accepted methods of timing a second. But for real now, why do we need to get that much better than a bloody cesium clock? Does somebody REALLY care whether it was 9.433324545 seconds or 9.433324549 seconds? Maybe scientists? Physicists? Psychotic deranged people who wear aluminum foil body suits and 14 swatches? Enlighten me people...

    --
    Lousy facepalm.