Nuclear Clocks: A New Era in Timekeeping

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This chapter explores the groundbreaking advancements in nuclear clock technology, highlighting how these clocks use nuclear transitions for unprecedented precision. It details the techniques employed in manipulating thorium nuclei with lasers, and the potential discoveries in fundamental physics and dark matter detection. Additionally, the chapter emphasizes the challenges faced in developing these clocks and the broader implications of such innovations across various scientific domains.

In this episode:

00:45 Why a 'nuclear clock' is now within researchers’ reach

Researchers have made a big step towards the creation of the long theorized nuclear clock, by getting the most accurate measurement of the frequency of light required to push thorium nuclei into a higher energy state. Such a timekeeper would differ from the best current clocks as their ‘tick’ corresponds to the energy transitions of protons and neutrons, rather than electrons. Nuclear clocks have the potential to be more robust and accurate than current systems, and could offer researchers new insights into fundamental forces present within atomic nuclei.

Research Article: Zhang et al.

News and Views: Countdown to a nuclear clock

Nature News: ‘Nuclear clock’ breakthrough paves the way for super-precise timekeeping

Editorial: Progress on nuclear clocks shows the benefits of escaping from scientific silos

10:10 Research Highlights

The star that got partially shredded by a supermassive black hole, not just once, but twice, and how heatwaves could mangle bumblebees’ sense of smell.

Research Highlight: This unlucky star got mangled by a black hole — twice

Research Highlight: Bumblebees’ sense of smell can’t take the heat

12:11 How engineered immune cells could help limit damage after spinal injury

By harnessing T cells to fine-tune the inflammation response, researchers have limited the damage caused by spinal injury in mice, an approach they hope might one day translate into a human therapy. Following injury to the central nervous system, immune cells rush to the scene, resulting in a complex array of effects, both good and bad. In this work researchers have identified the specific kind of T cells that amass at the site, and used them to create an immunotherapy that helps the mice recover more quickly from injuries by slowing damage to neurons.

Research article: Gao et al.

20:36 Briefing Chat

How unprecedented floods in Brazil have helped and hindered paleontologists, and the ‘AI scientist’ that does everything from literature review through to manuscript writing, to an extent.

Nature News: The race to save fossils exposed by Brazil’s record-setting floods

Nature News: Researchers built an ‘AI Scientist’ — what can it do?

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