New Clock Gives Time a 'Second' Look

You won't to have to reset your clock, but the length of a second may soon change.

That's because a new optical clock built in Germany is ticking so precisely that if it had been around since the Big Bang, it would have lost just 100 seconds, The Independent reports.

And by using this clock as the world's official timekeeper, changing the length of a second by a minuscule amount, the performance of GPS navigation, electrical power grids and computerized financial networks will improve.

The journal Optica says the new clock uses strontium atoms, which tick faster than the system now used.

"If you started this clock at the beginning of the universe with the Big Bang, it would likely not have gained or lost a second for the entire age of the universe," said Scott Diddams, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Colorado.

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