An experimental atomic clock based on a single mercury atom is now at least five times more precise than the national standard clock based on a "fountain" of cesium atoms, according to physicists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The experimental clock produces "ticks" at optical frequencies, which are much higher than the microwave frequencies measured in cesium atoms. The current version of the national standard clock, NIST-F1, would neither gain nor lose a second in about 70 milliion years. The experimenal clock would neither gain nor lose time in about 400 million years.
400 Million Years...
