Nuclear clocks based on thorium-229 demonstrate stable operation

ChinaScience, citing a Nature article, reports that Chinese scientists achieved stable operation of a nuclear clock using thorium-229 transitions and a 148-nanometer laser. Another post says scientists in Austria and China independently demonstrated nuclear clocks, which use transitions in atomic nuclei rather than electrons. The post says the prototypes have not beaten the best optical atomic clocks, but the approach could eventually improve navigation and tests of fundamental physics, including dark matter searches.