The first stand-alone nuclear clock is ticking in Vienna

Physicists in Vienna built the first self-stabilizing nuclear clock, using thorium nuclei as its pendulum. A laser flips the nuclei between two energy states, and they keep the laser's frequency steady, correcting small drifts. It ran for over 24 hours without intervention, and because nuclei are less sensitive to disturbances than atoms, the design could eventually outperform today's atomic clocks.

Summary written with AI by HowTechMoves, based on reporting by Phys.org.