Slashdot Mirror


Man-Made Atomic Clocks the Best In the Universe

An anonymous reader writes "The widespread belief by astrophysicists that pulsars and white dwarfs are the best clocks in the universe is wrong, say two Australian physicists. John Hartnett and Andre Luiten from the University of Western Australia have recently shown that man-made terrestrial atomic clocks take the crown, contrary to numerous claims in astrophysical literature that the natural timing provided by pulsars and white dwarfs is the most precise. The preprint of their paper, available on the arXiv, shows that terrestrial clocks exceed the accuracy and stability of the astrophysical 'clocks' by all sensible measures, in some cases by several orders of magnitude."

5 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah thats right. by celticryan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Man > Nature... Take that religion!

    1. Re:Yeah thats right. by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Funny

      To which Religion retorts: "You can't disprove I didn't create you first, so therefore I did!"

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
  2. Relatively speaking... by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't the best clock going to be one in your frame of reference?

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  3. Re:science journal DUH! by LucidBeast · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, maybe your atom clock is more accurate, but my pulsar timepiece has way brighter display.

  4. Re:I hate to be condecending... by still+cynical · · Score: 5, Funny

    How much matter is in space?

    Strictly speaking, all of it.

    --
    Ignorance is the root of all evil.