{"id":920317,"date":"2026-10-08T06:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920317\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T06:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:32:18","slug":"nuclear-clocks-could-become-worlds-most-accurate-timekeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920317\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear clocks could become world’s most accurate timekeepers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of crystals illuminated with lasers could become the world’s most accurate clocks.<\/p>\n

Two teams of scientists have made the world’s first “nuclear clocks”, which keep time by tracking tiny changes in the centre of atoms.<\/p>\n

Both clocks are so accurate that if they ran for 30 million years, they would only be off by a second.<\/p>\n

This accuracy does not surpass the best clocks in operation right now, but both teams are confident they will be able to improve their clocks significantly.<\/p>\n

The researchers have published their work in two papers<\/a> in the journal Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

University of New South Wales physicist Victor Flambaum said nuclear clocks had the potential to become the “most accurate instrument humans have ever built”.<\/p>\n

Professor Flambaum said the studies, which he was not involved with, represented an exciting step forward.<\/p>\n

The clocks could be used to improve technology such as GPS, mining surveys and solve physics mysteries.<\/p>\n

How does a nuclear clock work?<\/p>\n

Atoms, which compose all the matter we interact with, are made from a “nucleus” containing a dense cluster of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a spacious cloud of electrons.<\/p>\n

Atomic clocks, currently the most accurate measures of time in the world, work by tracking changes in the electrons around the nucleus of a caesium atom.<\/p>\n

But these clocks are approaching a point where it is physically impossible to make them more accurate.<\/p>\n

\"Cluster<\/p>\n

Atoms are made from a dense “nucleus” of clustered protons and neutrons (red and blue), surrounded by a cloud of moving electrons (grey) which can be thousands of times larger in size. (Pixabay: geralt)<\/p>\n

Nuclear clocks use a similar logic to atomic clocks, but they track even smaller changes in the nucleus of an atom.<\/p>\n

“A nucleus is very small compared to [a whole] atom,” Professor Flambaum said.<\/p>\n

Because it is thousands of times smaller, a nucleus could be used to measure much more subtle changes in time, leading to a more accurate clock.<\/p>\n

Why couldn’t we build nuclear clocks before?<\/p>\n

Nuclear clocks have been theorised for more than two decades, but until recently technological and theoretical constraints have made them impossible to build.<\/p>\n

Thorsten Schumm, co-author on one of the new studies and a physicist at Vienna University of Technology, said the main turning point in his team’s research came a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n

In early 2024 the team used a laser to produce the predicted change in an atomic nucleus that would allow time to be measured.<\/p>\n

Professor Flambaum said progress had been “very rapid” since that discovery.<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

The TU Wien team showed in 2024 that atomic nuclei could change states when prompted by a laser, giving them the “tick” of a nuclear clock. (Supplied: Matthias Heisler\/TU Wien)<\/p>\n

Tsinghua University physicist and study co-author Shiqian Ding said his team needed to solve several different problems to make the nuclear clock.<\/p>\n

The problems included making a material with the right clock nuclei inside it and developing lasers precise enough to produce reliable changes.<\/p>\n

“There was no single step that suddenly made the clock possible,” Dr Ding said.<\/p>\n

What is a nuclear clock made from?<\/p>\n

A specific type of thorium atom, thorium-229, has the properties to make it usable as a timekeeper.<\/p>\n

Both teams grew crystals containing thorium-229, then suspended them under ultra-precise lasers that could produce tiny, nucleus-sized “ticks” in the thorium.<\/p>\n

The researchers also have plans to improve nuclear clocks so they can outperform atomic clocks.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Atomic clocks at Australia’s National Measurement Institute. (Supplied: National Measurement Institute)<\/p>\n

Professor Schumm said thorium-229 had potential to be more stable than atomic clocks, meaning nuclear clocks could become very small and practical to move around.<\/p>\n

“We envision a chip-scale device,” he said.<\/p>\n

What would nuclear clocks be used for?<\/p>\n

Nuclear clocks could be used to improve navigation systems such as GPS, which has driven military interest<\/a> in the latest iterations of atomic clocks.<\/p>\n

Professor Flambaum said nuclear clocks could be accurate enough to measure the manipulation of time by gravity, per Einstein’s theories of relativity.<\/p>\n

This could make them useful in mining exploration or earthquake prediction.<\/p>\n

“By measuring, accurately, the gradient of gravitational fields, we can see what is under the earth,” Professor Flambaum said.<\/p>\n

The super-accurate timekeeping could also be used in physics research, particularly in probing mysterious dark matter.<\/p>\n

“I am particularly excited about using nuclear clocks to test fundamental physics,” Dr Ding said.<\/p>\n

Professor Schumm’s team has already used their nuclear clock to detect evidence of dark matter, as proof of concept.<\/p>\n

He is planning to install a second nuclear clock in Innsbruck within a year, to accompany the clock in Vienna and measure subtle changes in Earth’s movement around the Sun.<\/p>\n

Professor Flambaum said there was a “race” among several other groups to make practical nuclear clocks and that any one of them could be the first to outperform atomic clocks.<\/p>\n

“The progress is so fast, I expect it will be soon,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pair of crystals illuminated with lasers could become the world’s most accurate clocks. Two teams of scientists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[12677,64,63,20470,95902,265836,292,65383,128,136509,6618],"class_list":["post-920317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-atomic-clocks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dark-matter","tag-measurement","tag-nuclear-clocks","tag-physics","tag-relativity","tag-science","tag-thorium","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}