Researchers at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have created a tiny atomic fountain ...

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 ...

Smaller version Illustration of a conventional atomic fountain clock (left) next to NPL’s miniature atomic fountain clock.

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This particular clock is technically an ion clock, which is different from the more common atomic clocks that are based on measuring the resonant frequencies of a single cesium atom to regulate time ...