Two independent teams of scientists have created the first functional clocks that can keep ultraprecise time using the nuclei ...

First dreamed up decades ago, the world's first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding the hunt for dark matter.

Atomic clocks are a class of clocks that leverage resonance frequencies of atoms to keep time with high precision. While these clocks have become increasingly advanced and accurate over the years, ...

By using a rare thorium nucleus as a timekeeper, physicists have demonstrated the first working nuclear clock, a device that could lead to even more precise clocks and new ways to search for dark ...

Physicists like to measure things, and they like those measurements to be as precise as possible. That means working at unfathomably small scales, where distances are much smaller than even the ...

New standards in nuclear physics An international research team led by the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI has measured the radius of the nucleus of muonic helium-3 with unprecedented precision. The ...

Vladan Vuletić with members of his Experimental Atomic Physics group. From left to right: Matthew Radzihovsky, Leon Zaporski, Qi Liu, Vladan Vuletić, and Gustavo Velez. Every time you check the time ...

The time is nigh for nuclear clocks. In a first, scientists have used a tabletop laser to bump an atomic nucleus into a higher energy state. It’s a feat that sets scientists on a path toward creating ...

Invented 30 years ago, the atomic force microscope has been a major driver of nanotechnology, ranging from atomic-scale imaging to its latest applications in manipulating individual molecules, ...

At the far end of the periodic table is a realm where nothing is quite as it should be. The elements here, starting at atomic number 104 (rutherfordium), have never been found in nature. In fact, they ...

Silver iodide is an electrical insulator, which rules out most surface-imaging tools that rely on electrons or ions. The team ...