Readers will know that I have a fondness for accurate time measurement and own two Cesium clocks as well as some synchronised GPS clocks. (The Cesium were surplus from a cell tower upgrade). The National Institute of Standards and Technology is responsible for developing more accurate ways to measure time - their latest is pretty amazing. From Motherboard:
This New Atomic Clock Is So Precise Our Ability to Measure Gravity Constrains Its Accuracy
Researchers at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed an atomic clock that is so precise that our models of Earth’s gravity aren’t accurate enough to keep up with it. As detailed in a paper published this week in Nature , the atomic clock could pave the way for creating an unprecedented map of the way the Earth’s gravity distorts spacetime and even shed light on the development of the early universe.
“The level of clock performance being reported is such that we don’t actually know how to account for it well enough to support the level of performance the clock achieves, ” Andrew Ludlow, a physicist at NIST and the project lead on the organization’s new atomic clock, told me on the phone. “Right now the state of the art techniques aren’t quite good enough so we’re limited by how well we understand gravity on different parts of the Earth.”
For a look at NIST's time keeping, here is a very wonderful interview with the Nation's Time Lord Dr. Judah Levine:
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