David Artsmith  -  If regular wall clocks stopped and you needed to reset it, you look at another time telling device to know what time it is. Now, if there was no other clock or watch, how would you know what time it was? This is the question scientists have tried to answer over time because it is possible that at a point in time you may have only one time piece and if that needs to be reset, you do not have any other reference to set your time.

Atomic clocks answer these difficulties. The atomic clock is a highly accurate and independent timepiece. They are so accurate that Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and television broadcasts rely on their horological properties to function. They employ oscillations between the atoms nucleus, and the electrons which orbit it, which gives it its name.

There are three main types of atomic wall clocks.

In a cesium clock, cesium atoms are released in a regular pattern in order to count time. The mechanism employs magnetic field to separate cesium atoms of differing energy levels. This type is the most complex and accurate of all atomic clocks.

The Hydrogen atomic clocks keep time by housing hydrogen atoms in an enclosure and thus prevent them from escaping readily.

Rubidium clocks apply rubidium gas glass cell to control optical and microwave frequencies to keep time. The Rubidium is the simplest of all atomic clocks.

Atomic clocks are widely used by the military, aerospace industry and satellite companies to keep accurate, reliable and standard time. They can be set up once and left to work for tens of years without any adjustment or power rundown.

One of the important things about accurate timekeeping is that it not only tells us when something occurred, it can also tell us the relative position and speed of that occurrence. Just think about a car. You measure the speed of the car according to how many miles were traveled per hour. This is the same idea employed to understand the speed of space craft, missiles, trains, and any other moving device. This shows the importance of having accurate timekeeping devices.

Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University have revealed in the journal Nature Chemistry that they’ve created a “magnetic superatom”, or “a stable cluster of atoms that can mimic different elements of the periodic table”. The poor Periodic Table of the Elements barely gets any respect as it is from the kids today (quick: do you know your Noble Gases, or the atomic weight of Nobilium?), now it has to compete with fancypants super atoms!

This new superatom is made of one vanadium and eight cesium atoms, and it “acts like a tiny magnet that can mimic a single manganese atom in magnetic strength while preferentially allowing electrons of specific spin orientation to flow through the surrounding shell of cesium atoms”. What good is this new superatom? According to Shiv N. Khanna, Ph.D., professor in the VCU Department of Physics:

A combination such as the one we have created here can lead to significant developments in the area of “molecular electronics,” a field where researchers study electric currents through small molecules. These molecular devices are expected to help make non-volatile data storage, denser integrated devices, higher data processing and other benefits.

The researchers are also exploring non-conductive magnetic superatoms by combining gold and manganese.

Via Spintronics Info.