GoKawiilTwo research teams have created a new, long-awaited type of timekeeper. Plus, how backlash has saved an ocean-monitoring network targeted by Trump and how our cultural heritage is put at risk by climate change.
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Researchers have been chasing the concept of a nuclear clock for more than 20 years. Last year, Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney explained how the imminent discovery could improve on state-of-the-art atomic clocks. (Nature | 4 min watch)
Two research teams, one in Europe and one in China, have made the world’s first ‘nuclear’ clocks. These clocks derive their ‘tick’ from the energy that makes protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of thorium-229 shift to a higher energy level. The groups used similar approaches to solve the problem that’s hindered nuclear-clock development in the past: how to keep the clock’s tick speed from drifting over time. Creating a nuclear clock is “a dream come true”, says atomic physicist Thorsten Schumm, a member of the European team. “Now we have a fierce but friendly global competition.”
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: arXiv preprint 1 & preprint 2 (not peer reviewed)
The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has been detected in two wild birds in Australia — the first cases of the disease on the continent. There’s no evidence that the virus has killed large groups of birds or mammals, but at least 58 sick or dead birds have been reported on an emergency hotline. Mainland Australia had previously been a stronghold against the virus, but “we all knew we couldn't be bird flu-free forever”, says Julie Collins, the country’s agricultural minister.
BBC | 4 min read & ABC News | 6 min read
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced last week that it will no longer proceed with Trump administration plans to dismantle much of the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a network of hundreds of instruments used to monitor ocean science and climate change. Some devices had already been removed, and the NSF said that it is “developing plans to redeploy the equipment after servicing”. The change came after a bipartisan effort by some lawmakers to stop the system from being taken apart.
The New York Times | 8 min read
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