David vs Goliaths: Singapore builds most accurate clock ever, leaves US and China in dust
The decade-long project could help to pave the way for a redefinition of the second, researchers claim in a new paper
A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock.
The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe.
It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an aluminium-ion clock unveiled last year by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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