Tag Archives: Atomic

Laser-powered atomic clock fuels temporal pedants’ ire

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If you thought that your regular atomic clock, which loses a second once every few years, is adequate for your needs, then Dr. Jerome Lodewyck wants a word. His team at the Paris Observatory claims to have invented an atomic clock which only loses a second every three centuries. Rather than measuring the oscillations of caesium atoms, the "Optical Lattice Clock" uses a laser to excite strontium atoms which vibrate much faster and are, therefore, more accurate. Of course, it's a cruel irony that just as soon as someone's plonked down $78,000 on a Hoptroff No. 10, a rogue gang of scientists find a way to make it obsolete.

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Via: BBC News

Source: Nature

Laser-powered atomic clock fuels temporal pedants’ ire

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If you thought that your regular atomic clock, which loses a second once every few years, is adequate for your needs, then Dr. Jerome Lodewyck wants a word. His team at the Paris Observatory claims to have invented an atomic clock which only loses a second every three centuries. Rather than measuring the oscillations of caesium atoms, the "Optical Lattice Clock" uses a laser to excite strontium atoms which vibrate much faster and are, therefore, more accurate. Of course, it's a cruel irony that just as soon as someone's plonked down $78,000 on a Hoptroff No. 10, a rogue gang of scientists find a way to make it obsolete.

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Via: BBC News

Source: Nature

Hoptroff’s atomic pocket watch is the ultimate rich guy accessory

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Hoptroff's atomic pocket watch is the ultimate rich guy accessory

So, you've made a fortune, bought a sports team, own a spaceship and drive a neon pink Batmobile. If you were worrying that there were no more extravagant purchases to be made, you were wrong. Luxury timepiece maker Hoptroff has just teased details of its latest method of parting you from your money -- a pocket watch with its own atomic clock. Rather than your average radio-recieving watch, the Hoptroff No. 10 will apparently contain a Symmetricom caesium gas chamber (pictured after the break), developed in partnership with the Department of Defense. The watch will be available in November and, if you get lost at sea with just a sextant, will double as a marine navigation device. Priced at £50,000 ($78,000), only twelve are to be produced, which you'll be able to buy provided you can pass the security checks necessary to carry "sensitive materials."

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Sensitive scales can weigh individual atoms, ensure perfect recipes

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Those of you who have navigated beyond using an Easy-Bake Oven will know that weighing out ingredients is a chore. Then again, it's nothing compared to the sort of balancing that takes place at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology, where a team has developed a method of weighing individual protons. Using heated, shortened carbon nanotubes in a vacuum, the scale vibrates at different frequencies depending on what molecules are balanced on top. The Yoctogram-scale will enable scientists to diagnose health conditions by finding differences in mass, identifying elements in chemical samples that only differ at the atomic level and ensuring you never over-flour your batter mix again.

Sensitive scales can weigh individual atoms, ensure perfect recipes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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