Clocks

A photo of the atomic clock setup complete with the bisecting cavity. CreditJILA/Ye GroupJILA’s breakthrough in optical atomic clocks uses quantum entanglement to surpass fundamental precision limits, setting a new standard in timekeeping and opening avenues for scientific discovery.Historically, JILA (a joint institute established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder) has been a world leader in precision timekeeping using optical atomic clocks. These clocks…

A lot of automotive and off-roading enthusiasts were eagerly waiting for the launch of the Maruti Suzuki Jimny lifestyle off-roader. However, since the launch of this SUV back in June of last year, the sales for this SUV have only been going down. On the other hand, the sales figures for its direct competitor, Mahindra Thar, have only been increasing. In the month of January 2024, MSIL only managed to sell about 163 units of the Jimny. What’s more shocking is that even the Toyota Hilux, which is a lot more expensive…

Atomic dipoles on a lattice interact to produce an observable spatially varying frequency shift (shown as blue to red). Credit: Steven Burrows/Ye GroupIn groundbreaking research, JILA and NIST scientists have enhanced the understanding of atomic clock precision by studying cooperative Lamb shifts in strontium-87 atoms within a cubic lattice.In a new study published in the journal Science on January 25, JILA and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics…

Researchers believe they’ve found the oldest known fossilized skin, hidden away in a limestone cave system in Oklahoma. The skin sample dates to the early Permian Period, between 289 million years ago and 286 million years ago.Are You Rich Enough to Buy This Folding TV?The skin belonged to an ancient reptile and is epidermis—the outer layer of skin in amniotes, a group that includes terrestrial reptiles, mammals, and birds. A study describing the skin as well as several other fossils found in the cave system is published…

Apple’swidening effort to turn its nine-year-old watch from a luxury timepiece into the ultimate all-in-one medical device is taking it into territory that is legally treacherous as well as potentially profitable.This month’s suspension of Apple Watch sales was the starkest sign yet that the world’s most valuable tech company is treading new ground as it adds health features to the device. While Apple on Wednesday won a temporary reprieve to resume sales, specialists in medical devices say the technical and legal…

‘Arthritis’ means inflammation or swelling of one or more joints, but more than 100 conditions affect the joints, the tissues around the joint, and other connective tissue. While symptoms vary depending on the type of arthritis, they commonly include debilitating joint pain and stiffness. In 2023, researchers were focused on better understanding the disease process, and the treatment and relief of arthritis symptoms. Here are the year’s top arthritis stories that appeared on New Atlas.Mechanism underlying joint…

Clocks, lasers, and other oscillators could be tuned to super-quantum precision, allowing researchers to track infinitesimally small differences in time, according to a new MIT study. Credit: MIT News; iStock More stable clocks could measure quantum phenomena, including the presence of dark matter. The practice of keeping time relies on stable oscillations. In grandfather clocks, the length of a second is marked by a single swing of the pendulum. In digital watches, the vibrations of a quartz crystal mark much smaller…

It was 15:37 (GMT) on a Thursday afternoon when we officially ran out of ideas. The request from the editors had been bouncing around for a couple of weeks: We need to write about the clocks going back. We’d groaned and tried to ignore it, but it kept resurfacing. Like time itself, the need was eternal.If you’re not in the digital publishing business you might not know this, but people absolutely love reading articles about the clocks changing. They are routinely among the biggest performing stories on the site, and…

In this artist’s interpretation, a pair of supermassive black holes (top left) emits gravitational waves that ripple through the fabric of space-time. Those gravitational waves compress and stretch the paths of radio waves emitted by pulsars (white). By carefully measuring the radio waves, a team of scientists recently made the first detection of the universe’s gravitational wave background. Credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav CollaborationRadio telescope observations of <span class="glossaryLink"…

In a pioneering study, scientists have used quasars as cosmic clocks to observe the early universe running in extreme slow motion, further validating Einstein’s theory of general relativity. By examining data from nearly 200 quasars, hyperactive supermassive black holes in the centers of early galaxies, the team found that time appeared to flow five times slower when the universe was just over a billion years old.Observational data from nearly 200 quasars show Einstein correct – again – about time dilation of the…