Time feels familiar. It marks every moment of daily life, from the ticking of a wall clock to the changing numbers on a ...

(koto_feja/Getty Images) A breakthrough in chronometry decades in the making could redefine the limits of how we keep time.

Most clocks, from wristwatches to the systems that run GPS and the internet, work by tracking regular, repeating motions. To build a clock, you need something that ticks in a perfectly repeatable way.

But physicists have long dreamt of even better clocks that run on atomic nuclei, which are less sensitive to environmental ...

Atomic clocks are established as the most precise timekeepers created. Atomic clocks work by deploying lasers to measure the vibrations of atoms (electromagnetic signals). By atoms oscillating at a ...

For many years, cesium atomic clocks have been reliably keeping time around the world. But the future belongs to even more accurate clocks: optical atomic clocks. In a few years' time, they could ...