Measuring time in billionths of a second
JAN 05, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023979
washingtonpost.com : Civilization can now track the passage of time with an accuracy of three or four parts in 10 million billion, equivalent to gaining or losing no more than one second in 100 million years or so.But for a host of urgent purposes from fundamental physics to neuroscience and defense applications that’s not good enough.So scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal agency responsible for the clock-tech that determines official US time, are busily trying out new ways to slice it into pieces that are hundreds of times smaller than today’s smallest.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
