New Lutetium-Ion Atomic Clock Breaks World Precision Record

The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe.

It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an aluminium-ion clock unveiled last year by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.