Record-Breaking Clock Just Set a New Standard For Accuracy

(Patcharin Saenlakon/iStockphoto/Getty Images) The time-keeping offered by your watch or phone may be good enough for day-to-day life, but scientists are much more ambitious in terms of precision, and use atomic clocks to measure slices of time as accurately as possible.

These clocks are based on 'ticks' of light waves or microwave signals, tuned by electrons swapping energy levels as they are excited by the external energy source. As those swaps happen at a specific, known frequency for each type of element, a single atom of it can be used to make sure the ticks are precise.

Now we have a new atomic clock that claims to beat all previous records when it comes to accuracy. It's based on the element lutetium, and measures a second with an uncertainty level of under a ten-billion-billionth of a second, around four times better than anything previously recorded.