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Nature 421, 207-208 (16 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/421207a
Optical atomic clocks: The times, they are a-changin'
David Adam1
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Abstract
More accurate timepieces could lead to better global positioning systems, insights into fundamental physics and a redefinition of the second. David Adam rates the runners in the race to build tomorrow's atomic clocks.
It's perhaps not the ultimate race against time, but rather the race to keep ultimate time. In a handful of labs around the world, physicists are developing a new generation of clocks so accurate that they should lose just one second in 100 billion years.
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