NUS researchers develop new Lutetium Atomic Clock with record accuracy that could advance precision timekeeping

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Who published it, and when

How it spread - 9 original reports

1. Wed, 23 September 2026

   1 report
   • indiatimes.com19:51first to report
     NUS researchers develop new Lutetium Atomic Clock with record accuracy that could advance precision timekeeping

     Scientists at the National University of Singapore have developed a highly precise optical atomic clock using lutetium. Researchers at the Centre for Quantum Technologies measured its frequency to 19 decimal places and reported an uncertainty of 1 × 10-19, which they said is the lowest recorded for an optical atomic clock. The team compared two separate clocks to test the measurement and achieved a comparison uncertainty of 5.7 × 10-19. The technology could support future research involving...

2. Fri, 2 October 2026

   1 report
   • South China Morning Post08:00
     David vs Goliaths: Singapore builds most accurate clock ever, leaves US and China in dust

     A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock. The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe. It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an...

3. Wed, 7 October 2026

   6 reports
   • ABC News (Australia)14:58
     New nuclear clocks could become world's most accurate timekeepers

     The clocks are so accurate they could run for 30 million years and only lose a second of time.

   • ABC (Spain)15:00
     El reloj atómico ha muerto: ¡larga vida al reloj nuclear!

     Durante siglos hemos construido relojes cada vez más precisos. Primero fueron mecanismos con ruedas y engranajes; después llegaron los péndulos, el cuarzo y, finalmente, los relojes atómicos . Ahora los físicos han dado un paso que, hasta hace muy poco, parecía casi imposible: han conseguido que sea el propio núcleo de un átomo el que marque el paso del tiempo. Es decir, han construido el primer reloj nuclear de la historia.El logro ha sido conseguido por dos equipos de investigadores, cada uno...

   • El Mundo (Spain)15:00
     Los primeros relojes nucleares funcionales ya son una realidad: se estabilizan solos y rastrean señales de materia oscura

     Dos equipos -uno de Austria y otro de China- presentan dos prototipos de reloj nuclear. Ambos utilizan cristales con torio-229 y sistemas de realimentación para mantener estable su frecuencia, y uno de ellos ya ha funcionado durante más de 24 horas sin intervención. Leer

   • South China Morning Post15:00
     China’s thorium-229 nuclear clock beats Vienna’s on stability, studies show

     Initial results from the world’s first two working nuclear clocks indicate that China’s timepiece is about six times as stable as the one in Vienna, according to papers published this week by the journal Nature. The clocks were developed independently but both the Chinese team, led by Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the researchers at Vienna’s TU Wien used thorium-229 nuclei embedded in crystals to keep time by the steady rhythm of the atom’s core, rather than the electrons whirling...

   • El País (Spain)15:00
     La era de los relojes nucleares ya está aquí: el nuevo tictac para explorar las leyes de la física

     Científicos chinos y europeos presentan sendos prototipos que abren una nueva era en la medición del tiempo usando como ‘péndulo’ el torio-229

   • El Pais English15:27
     The age of nuclear clocks is here: A new tool for probing the laws of physics

     Chinese and European scientists have unveiled prototypes that usher in a new era of timekeeping, using thorium-229 as their ‘pendulum’

4. Thu, 8 October 2026

   1 report
   • Index.hr (Croatia)15:59
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     ZNANSTVENICI su konstruirali prve nuklearne satove, uređaje koji bi mogli pridonijeti razumijevanju temeljnih zakona fizike.