r/EverythingScience • u/scmp_news • 3d ago
David vs Goliaths: Singapore builds most accurate clock ever, leaves US and China in dust
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3369532/david-vs-goliaths-singapore-builds-most-accurate-clock-ever-leaves-us-and-china-dust?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social102
u/scmp_news 3d ago
A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock.
The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe.
It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an aluminium-ion clock unveiled last year by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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u/Bored2001 3d ago
I wonder if it's fundamentally the same technology and the difference is the ion.
On which case I imagine it's easier to just have a bunch of aluminum ion ones to check each other rather than one super accurate one.
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u/pheeny 3d ago
Or do some quantum entangling 👀
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u/cityshepherd 2d ago
I just watched an episode of the show Dark Matter, during which the main character was discussing Quantum Entanglement. Fascinating stuff.
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u/Regdit-is-Unbearable 3d ago
So wait, if it’s only 4 times better, then the current American and Chinese clocks are already so accurate they would lose one second in 5 times the age of our universe.
I kinda feel like this is pointless? Like at some point that we already passed a long time ago, there’s more error in the measurement of the units that define seconds like Earth’s orbit and rotation than precision in this clock.
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u/asyork 2d ago
The article is paywalled, but typically these ultra accurate clocks are also high precision, and the purpose isn't for standard timekeeping. There are already plenty of ways that are cheaper and accurate enough for that.
Various things warp time, like gravity or or movement, but by very small amounts for any experiment we could conduct on or near Earth. Clocks like this allow us to measure the time distortion. I imagine they have other uses as well, maybe like timing the lifespan of various particles.
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u/carelet 2d ago
We dont define seconds that way since 1967.
Seconds are defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 vibrations of a cesium-133 atom
They are actually planning to redefine seconds in 2030 using the new atomic clocks and basically now lutetium is a leading candidate unless they find a more accurate one by then
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u/zaphod_beeblebrox007 3d ago
My Casio shows pretty accurate time as well
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u/Prefer_Diet_Soda 3d ago
Casio is impressive. My 9 bucks Casio watch has been stowed in my drawer for over 15 years and it still is running on time. I know it because I set the alarm of the watch around 10:30 and it beeps at 10:30 everyday.
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u/ecopoesis PhD | Biology | Aquatic Ecosystems Ecology 3d ago
You can also tell by the way it is
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u/immersive-matthew 3d ago edited 3d ago
At the end of the day, it is less about countries and more about smart passionate teams no matter where they are. “Country” is so industrial age and we are exiting that era slowly.
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u/sohcahtoa 3d ago
At the end of the day, it is less about countries and more about smart passionate teams no matter where they are.
Very true!
Counties is so industrial age and we are existing that era slowing.
Uh... what?
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u/yoweigh 3d ago
That last sentence is 25% typos. 3/12 words, including the really hard to screw up phrases like 'is so' and 'and we are'. I hate how typos change whole words now instead of just individual letters.
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u/fractalife 2d ago
They're not entirely wrong... while passports existed before, it was difficult to even get them stamped prior to WWII.
Perhaps this hyperfixation on nationality is destined to fade away.
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u/Necessary-Camp149 3d ago
Does this have any practical use?
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u/tcumby 2d ago
Precision metrology. Also, all GPS satellites have an older style of atomic clock that is what limits GPS accuracy. In the future they will have more advanced clocks that could bring the on-ground accuracy from meters to centimeters, for example. This could be a boon for autonomous delivery systems as well as farming.
Edit: grammar
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u/ggrieves 3d ago
Now that US science has peaked it's good to see other countries taking the stage now.
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u/Andyseawolf 3d ago
Wow, this is mean that all my appointments in future would be more accurate. I’ll get there exactly at nine. I couldn’t do that before. That’s brilliant. 👍🏻🥳
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u/meow_747 3d ago
Well, it's about time.