Narrative thread · 1 event
Chinese and European teams have unveiled the first two working nuclear clocks, based on thorium-229. According to papers published this week, the Chinese clock is about six times as stable as the one in Vienna.
Nuclear clocks keep time using a transition in an atomic nucleus, here thorium-229, rather than the electron transitions used in today's atomic clocks. Research groups in China and Europe have been working toward a usable version, in part because nuclei are less sensitive to outside disturbances.
Chinese and European scientists have unveiled the first two working nuclear clocks, which use thorium-229. According to papers published this week, the Chinese clock is about six times as stable as the one in Vienna.