By using a rare thorium nucleus as a timekeeper, physicists have demonstrated the first working nuclear clock, a device that ...

First dreamed up decades ago, the world's first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding ...

A clock based on radioactive thorium atoms realises a long-held ambition, demonstrating a technology that could eventually ...

But physicists have long dreamt of even better clocks that run on atomic nuclei, which are less sensitive to environmental ...

FOR THE discerning timekeeper, only an atomic clock will do. Whereas the best quartz timepieces will lose a millisecond every six weeks, an atomic clock might not lose a thousandth of one in a decade.

The first complete design for a quantum grandfather clock uses a single atom, tiny mirrors and light. Building it could help our understanding of what makes any clock accurate in the quantum realm and ...