[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
You’ve given some thought to oxygen, carbon, uranium. But you’ve probably never mused about the element ytterbium, symbol Yb. A new study by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, says that ytterbium could find a role in super-accurate atomic clocks. The report is in the journal Physical Review Letters.
The gold standard, if you will, for atomic clocks, is the element cesium, symbol Cs. Official civilian time is kept by the cesium NIST-F1 fountain clock, accurate to within one second every 100 million years. And the international definition of the second is based on exactly how many vibrations happen when a cesium atom’s electron changes energy levels. How many? 9,192,631,770. Exactly.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Anyway, your watch is fine for getting to work about on time, but if you want your GPS to work fine, you need these atomic clocks on Earth and on satellites. And an ytterbium clock has the potential to be even more accurate and stable than the cesium chronometer. Wow, I gotta go, look at the time.
—Steve Mirsky
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
