{"id":79185,"date":"2018-05-31T00:42:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T07:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/a-forgotten-element-could-help-us-redefine-the-way-we-measure-time"},"modified":"2018-05-31T00:42:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T07:42:36","slug":"a-forgotten-element-could-help-us-redefine-the-way-we-measure-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/a-forgotten-element-could-help-us-redefine-the-way-we-measure-time","title":{"rendered":"A Forgotten Element Could Help Us Redefine The Way We Measure Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-forgotten-element-could-help-us-redefine-the-way-we-measure-time.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A rare earth element that doesn\u2019t get much mention could become the key to upgrading <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atomic_clock\">atomic clocks<\/a> to become even more accurate. This could help us explore space and track satellites, and even keep the world\u2019s time zones in sync.<\/p>\n<p>Atomic clocks use the oscillations of atoms under laser fire as a measurement of time, in the same way a grandfather clock uses the swing of a pendulum. They can lose less than a second over 50 million years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/portable-atomic-clock-measures-gravity-first-time-relativistic-geodesy\">depending on the elements used<\/a> \u2014 but scientists want even greater accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lutetium\">lutetium<\/a> (Lu) comes in. It offers both a higher level of stability and a higher degree of precision than the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Caesium\">caesium<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rubidium\">rubidium<\/a> of today\u2019s atomic clocks, according to a team of researchers from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/neglected-atom-could-give-atomic-clocks-upgrades-more-accuracy\">https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/neglected-atom-could-give-atomi...e-accuracy<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rare earth element that doesn\u2019t get much mention could become the key to upgrading atomic clocks to become even more accurate. This could help us explore space and track satellites, and even keep the world\u2019s time zones in sync. Atomic clocks use the oscillations of atoms under laser fire as a measurement of time, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1617,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}