Why “optical” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
I may be completely ignorant, but aren't these strictly inferior to optical lattice atomic clocks? Maybe they have a better form factor/are more transportable?
by alansaber · Oct 8, 2026
There are 2 Nature articles, for the 2 independent teams who have built such nuclear clocks with thorium 229. This is the other article, from the Chinese team: https://…
by adrian_b · Oct 8, 2026
The hope is that with nuclear clocks there will be no need for the very complex single-ion traps or optical lattices required for clocks that use ionic or atomic energy levels.…
by adrian_b · Oct 8, 2026
They measured the stability by comparing the nuclear clocks with more stable conventional atomic clocks. In Vienna, they used a commercial single-ion optical clock [1], and in B…
by fsh · Oct 8, 2026
You measure precision with frequency combs and relative beat notes against an optical lattice clock
by soltanov · Oct 8, 2026
I've had very mixed success procuring used tape drives in the past, with a very high rate of failures. Looking at LTO-5 drives available to buy secondhand in Australia, they ran…
by publlus_enigma · Oct 8, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "optical" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "optical" over time.
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour, manipulation, and detection of electromagnetic radiation, including its interactions with matter and instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. The study of optics extends to other forms of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves, microwaves, and X-rays. The term optics is also applied to technology for manipulating beams of elementary charged particles. Read more on Wikipedia