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Scientists in two cities built a new kind of clock. One team works in Vienna, in Austria. The other team works in Beijing, in China. They wrote about their clocks in the journal Nature.

These are the first working nuclear clocks in the world. According to ABC News, they are very accurate. In 30 million years, they would be wrong by about one second.

Most good clocks today are atomic clocks. They watch the electrons around the centre of an atom. The new clocks look inside the centre itself. This centre is called the nucleus. It is thousands of times smaller than the atom.

Both teams used a special atom called thorium-229. They put it in crystals. Then they shone very exact lasers on the crystals.

The clocks are still new. Scientists are still testing them. They are not better than today's best clocks yet. But the teams think they can improve them quickly.

In the future, these clocks may help GPS work better. They may also help scientists predict earthquakes. One scientist in Vienna says they could become very small. Maybe one day they will be the size of a computer chip.

Two research teams, one in Vienna and one in Beijing, have built the world's first working nuclear clocks. They described their results in two papers in the scientific journal Nature.

According to ABC News, both clocks are so accurate that they would lose or gain only about one second if they ran for 30 million years. However, they are still in the experimental stage and are not yet more accurate than the best clocks we use today. Even so, both teams expect to improve them quickly.

So what makes them different? Today's atomic clocks keep time by tracking changes in the electrons that move around the nucleus of a caesium atom. A nuclear clock, on the other hand, measures changes inside the nucleus itself, which is thousands of times smaller than the whole atom.

Both teams worked with thorium-229, a special kind of thorium atom. They grew crystals containing it and shone extremely precise lasers on them to create tiny "ticks" in the nucleus. Although the goal was the same, the methods were different. The Vienna group used crystals with more thorium and better optical quality, while the Beijing group relied on an especially powerful laser. As Tsinghua physicist Shiqian Ding pointed out, reaching the same result in two different ways shows that the idea really works.

The key breakthrough came in early 2024, when the Vienna team first used a laser to change the thorium nucleus in the way scientists had predicted. Experts now hope nuclear clocks will improve GPS and, by measuring tiny effects of gravity on time, help with mining and earthquake prediction. Vienna physicist Thorsten Schumm even believes they could one day shrink to the size of a computer chip.

For decades, the gold standard of timekeeping has been the atomic clock. Now, according to two papers published in the journal Nature, researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built a new kind of timekeeper that looks even deeper inside matter: the world's first working nuclear clocks.

The distinction lies in what is being measured. Conventional atomic clocks keep time by monitoring changes in the electrons orbiting the nucleus of a caesium atom. Nuclear clocks go further, tracking transitions within the nucleus itself, a target thousands of times smaller than the atom as a whole. ABC News reports that both new devices are precise enough to drift by only about one second over 30 million years. That said, they remain firmly in the experimental stage and have yet to surpass the best clocks currently in operation, although both teams are confident of rapid gains.

Each group grew crystals containing thorium-229, an unusual form of thorium, and trained extraordinarily precise lasers on them to coax tiny "ticks" out of the nucleus. Their routes, however, diverged. The Vienna team, based at TU Wien, opted for crystals richer in thorium and of higher optical quality, whereas the Beijing team, from Tsinghua University and the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, leaned on an exceptionally powerful laser. For Tsinghua physicist Shiqian Ding, the fact that two different approaches arrived at the same destination simultaneously is evidence that the concept is robust.

The achievement has been a long time coming. ABC describes nuclear clocks as having been theorised for more than twenty years, while Vienna physicist Thorsten Schumm, speaking to the American Nuclear Society, puts the dream closer to half a century and says his team has pursued it since 2008. The turning point arrived in early 2024, when his group first used a laser to trigger the predicted change in the thorium nucleus.

The potential applications are far-reaching. Sharper timekeeping could refine GPS and other satellite navigation, mobile and fibre-optic communications, data synchronisation and surveying, while sensing gravity's subtle effect on time might aid mineral exploration and earthquake prediction. Schumm even envisages clocks shrinking to the size of a computer chip. His team has already put its clock to work in the hunt for dark matter, and he plans to install a second one in Innsbruck within a year to work alongside the Vienna clock.