A new time-keeping device based on the orbit of a neutron around an atomic nucleus has been proposed by scientists at the University of New South Wales. They suggest that their single-ion clock could be so accurate that it would err by less than 1/20th of a second in 14 billion years.
Current atomic clocks keep time by the orbit of an atom’s electrons. While these clocks are extremely accurate, the proposed nuclear clock would be approximately 100 times more so. This is because a neutron’s orbit is much less affected by external perturbations than an electron’s.
Read more at UNSW Sydney