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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."

4 of 267 comments (clear)

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

    Man > Nature... Take that religion!

  2. Relatively speaking... by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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  3. Precision is not the same as Accuracy by bano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The summary seems to use precision and accuracy interchangeably, they are in fact quite different.

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

    How much matter is in space?

    Strictly speaking, all of it.

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