Get Ready For the New, Improved Second - The New York Times

Scientists are preparing to redefine the fundamental unit of time. It won’t get any longer or shorter, but it will be more precise — and a whole lot more powerful.

That same astronomical thinking led them to patch the ancient Babylonian method of counting by 60, the sexagesimal system, onto the hour. Just as they divided the 360 degrees of a circle or the spher… [+2141 chars]

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