The time is nigh for nuclear clocks. In a first, scientists have used a tabletop laser to bump an atomic nucleus into a higher energy state. It’s a feat that sets scientists on a path toward creating ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Atomic clocks have served as the world’s most precise means of ...

Scientific clockmakers have crafted a prototype of a nuclear clock, hinting at future possibilities for using atomic nuclei to perform precise measurements of time and make new tests of fundamental ...

The famed Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887, in which perpendicular beams of light were raced against each other, seemed to show that a light-carrying ether pervading all space did not exist.

A nuclear transition such as that in thorium-229 will be much less disturbed in the solid state, and its clock transition will be mostly preserved even in a crystal environment. The solid-state ...

To measure time, you need a constant rhythm. For eons, the regular movements of the sun and moon have set the pace for all of life on Earth. But over millennia, humans have sought and found more ...

Inside a laboratory nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, amid a labyrinth of lenses, mirrors, and other optical machinery bolted to a vibration-resistant table, an apparatus resembling a ...