Question: When is a minute not a minute?
The answer: At 23:59 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on June 30, when the world will experience a minute that will last 61 seconds. The reason for the weird event is something called the leap second.
That is when timekeepers adjust high-precision clocks so that they are in sync with Earth’s rotation, which is affected by the gravitational tug of the sun and the moon.
Few of the planet’s 7.25 billion people are likely to be aware of the change — and even fewer will have set plans for how they will spend the extra moment.
However, for horologists, the additional second is a big deal, and there is a wrangle as to whether it is vital or should be scrapped.
“There is a downside,” said Daniel Gambis, director of the Service of the Rotation of the Earth — the poetically named branch of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, in charge of saying when the second should be added.
To be clear, the leap second is not something that needs to be added to that old clock on your mantelpiece.
Instead, its importance is for super-duper timepieces, especially those using the frequency of atoms as their tick-tock mechanism.
At the top of the atomic-clock range are “optical lattices” using strontium atoms, the latest example of which, unveiled in April, is accurate to 15 billion years — longer than the Universe has existed.
Outside the lab, cesium and rubidium clocks are the workhorses of GPS satellites, which have to send syncronized signals so that satellite-navigation receivers can triangulate their position on Earth.
On Earth, big-data computers may be less manic than atomic clocks, but still need highly precise internal timers.
The Internet, for instance, sends data around the world in tiny packets that are then stitched together in microseconds. Some algorithms in financial trading count on gaining a tiny slice of a second over rivals to make a profit.
There have been 25 occasions since 1971 when the leap second was added in an effort to simplify Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official monicker for GMT.
However, over the past 15 years, a debate has intensified about whether the change should be made, given the hassle.
“The argument of critics is that it’s become more and more difficult to manage these days, as so much equipment has internal clocks,” said Roland Lehoucq of France’s Atomic Energy Commission.
“The problem is synchronization between computers. They do sort things out, but sometimes it can take several days,” Lehoucq said.
The last modification, on June 30, 2012, was disruptive for many Internet servers — the online reservation system for the Australian airline Qantas “went down for several hours,” Gambis said.
“It’s time to get rid of the leap second. It causes complications and bugs,” said Sebastien Bize, a specialist in atomic clocks at the Paris Observatory’s SYRTE (Time-Space Reference System) Laboratory.
Gambis defends the change on the grounds of principle.
“Should Man be the servant of technology? Or should technology be the servant of Man?” he asked rhetorically.
After all, if the world got rid of the leap second, time as counted by humankind would no longer be coupled to the exact rotation of the planet it lives on.
“That would mean in 2,000 years, there would be an hour’s difference between UTC and the time it takes for the Earth to complete one complete turn,” Gambis said.
“It would mean that, on a scale of tens of thousands of years, people will be having their breakfast at 2 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese