Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

At Phys.org: ‘Eternal engine’ inspires the next generation of ultraprecise atomic clocks

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

UK scientists have created an “eternal engine” to keep the next generation of atomic clock ticking.

Precision timing is essential for systems such as global navigation, satellite mapping, establishing the composition of exoplanets and the next generations of telecommunication. But atomic clocks are currently massive devices—weighing hundreds of kilograms—which need to be housed within precise, difficult-to-maintain conditions.

That is why scientists from around the world are racing to build portable versions that will work in real-world settings, and could replace existing satellite navigation systems, such as GPS and Galileo.

Now, research undertaken at the University of Sussex and continued at Loughborough University has solved a major stumbling block in the development of these portable atomic clocks, by working out how to reliably switch “on” their counting device—and keep them running.

Microcombs are a fundamental part of future optical atomic clocks—they allow one to count the oscillation of the “atomic pendulum” in the clock, converting the atomic oscillation at hundreds of trillions of times per second to a billion times a second—a gigahertz frequency, that modern electronic systems can easily measure.

Based on electronic compatible optical microchips, microcombs are the best candidates to miniaturize the next generation of ultraprecise timekeeping. They are cutting-edge laser technology sources, made up of ultraprecise laser lines, equally spaced in the spectrum, which resemble a comb.

This peculiar spectrum opens an array of applications blending ultraprecise time keeping and spectroscopy which could lead to the discovery of exoplanets, or ultra-sensitive medical instruments based simply on breath scans.

The microcomb is a core component for creating a portable and ultra-accurate time reference, which is critically needed for the current and next generation of telecommunication (5 and 6G+ and fiber communication), network synchronization (e.g. electrical network) and it will reduce our dependence on the GPS.

Phys.org

Keeping the big questions in focus, we should ponder whether it’s reasonable that unguided natural forces could create “a portable and ultra-accurate time reference” or the “next generation of telecommunication (5 and 6G+ and fiber communication)”. Of course, we know that human beings are responsible for these technological achievements. But consider an analogy: if a scientist builds a robot that is designed to construct an electronic circuit board, what is the “efficient cause” (borrowing from Aristotle) of the circuit board? If you say, “the robot”, that’s only the first step in the causal chain. One would have to take it back to the human scientist who built the robot. But the causal chain needs to continue back further: what is the efficient cause of the human? The materialist would have to answer that unguided natural forces caused the human scientist who built the robot who constructed the electronic circuit board. The theist would answer that God created the human with the ability to do these things.

Launching the jibe, “Who created God?” doesn’t score a point. There has to be an always-existent first cause. God’s eternal self-existence is plausible by definition. If God exists, the concept of God giving humans the ability to create technological devices is plausible. The eternal existence of matter and energy not only defies scientific observation, but the ability of unguided forces to transform matter into a human that can create “a portable and ultra-accurate” atomic clock is a far stretch beyond what we know with certainty about the limitations of nature.

Comments
Martin_r at 2, Hey! Don't you get the OBVIOUS? Can't give God credit for life on earth. Oh no. Blind, unguided nothing created you and all living things. And nothing designed and built your computer :)relatd
August 12, 2022
August
08
Aug
12
12
2022
09:39 AM
9
09
39
AM
PDT
From Science.org
Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico from various parts of North America in the fall and navigate with the aid of Sun compass. This navigational mechanism, also employed by migratory birds, uses the circadian clock to compensate for the positional change of the Sun in the sky throughout the day. The mechanism behind time-compensated Sun compass orientation has remained obscure. Merlin et al. (p. 1700; see the Perspective by Kyriacou) now provide comprehensive data showing that the mechanism resides in the antennae of the butterflies, rather than the brain, as previously thought. The “antennal clocks” found in the monarchs probably provide the primary timing mechanism for Sun compass orientation. These findings reveal a further function for the antennae—a function that may extend widely to other insects that use this orientation mechanism
How can a rational educated person even think, that such a navi system wasn’t created/ engineered, but evolved by some blind unguided process with no foresight, without any knowledge …. This sounds like a very very absurd fake news …. A hoax…. Theory of evolution is a hoax ….martin_r
August 12, 2022
August
08
Aug
12
12
2022
09:24 AM
9
09
24
AM
PDT
Humans have the ability to choose whichever a priori assumption makes sense to them. We see examples all around us of complex devices created by intelligent causes. But for the idea to make sense that unguided forces transform matter into complex devices, one must work to imagine how that happens. In other words, it doesn’t really make sense. The fact that it is easier to believe things that make sense than to believe things that do not make sense seems to be another marker pointing to the plausibility of the God idea.Red Reader
August 10, 2022
August
08
Aug
10
10
2022
02:54 PM
2
02
54
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply