NIST ION CLOCK SETS NEW RECORD FOR MOST ACCURATE CLOCK IN THE WORLD

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have improved their atomic clock so it can perform timekeeping with 19 decimal places of accuracy. The aluminum ion clock is 2.6 times more stable than any other ion clock. Its accuracy will help facilitate new scientific and technological advances, allowing scientists to explore new concepts in quantum physics and build the tools needed for quantum technology. It could help physicists explore physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the possibility that the fundamental constants of nature are not fixed values but actually changing.