World's first thorium-229 nuclear clock shows potential for ultra-precise timekeeping and fundamental physics tests.

By using a rare thorium nucleus as a timekeeper, physicists have demonstrated the first working nuclear clock, a device that ...

First dreamed up decades ago, the world's first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding the hunt for dark matter.

But physicists have long dreamt of even better clocks that run on atomic nuclei, which are less sensitive to environmental disturbances. According to new research, that dream might soon become reality ...

Keeping time is easy, keeping precise time is hard, but a new type of clock based on atomic nuclei has pushed time-keeping ...

A string of experiments using thorium-229 nuclei has brought the long-theorized nuclear clock closer to reality, producing frequency measurements stable enough to challenge the atomic clocks that ...

A clock based on radioactive thorium atoms realises a long-held ambition, demonstrating a technology that could eventually beat the accuracy of today’s best atomic clocks ...

These radical new devices keep time using fluctuations in the energy states of an atom’s nucleus, rather than those of its ...

For decades, nuclear clocks have existed as one of physics’ most tempting promises. A ...

In 2008, a team of UCLA-led scientists proposed a scheme to use a laser to excite the nucleus of thorium atoms to realize extremely accurate, portable clocks. Last year, they realized this ...