Scientists built a tiny clock from single-electron jumps to probe the true energy cost of quantum timekeeping. They discovered that reading the clock’s output requires vastly more energy than the ...

Keeping track of time seems simple. A watch ticks, a pendulum swings, and a calendar flips. But at the quantum level, marking time is far more complicated — and far more expensive than anyone expected ...

Quantum technologies—devices that operate according to quantum mechanical principles—promise to bring users some groundbreaking innovations in whichever context they appear. Ironically, the same ...

In this case, the new clock uses an ion of aluminum linked to an ion of magnesium, forming what is known as a quantum logic clock. In this, the aluminum ion has a high-frequency, stable "tick." ...