We all know time is a construct, and right now, it's kept by the very precise tick of an international network of around 500 atomic clocks.
咱們都曉得時光是個龐雜的觀點。今朝，天下上有一個由約莫500台原子鐘構成的收集，而咱們就經由過程這些原子鐘準確的滴答舉行計時。
But now researchers have shown that time could be kept even more accurately with a new-generation of clocks called optical clocks, and they want to use the new system to redefine a second - which would mean we could squeeze even more into our days. The optical clock they've just measured is so precise that it would have lost less than two minutes if it had been running since the birth of the Universe, which is pretty incredible once you wrap your head around it.
然則如今研討職員表現，新一代鐘表——光學鐘——可以更精確地計時，並且他們想用新體系來從新界說一秒鐘的長度，這也就象征著咱們的日子裏乃至可以擠進去更多時間。方才丈量的光學鐘異常準確，假如它從宇宙出生之日起開端運行的話，到如今偏差還不到兩分鐘，細心想一想的確難以想象。
Global time-keeping is important, because 'the second' - as defined by the International System of Units (SI) - is what our GPS devices, electrical power grids, and financial networks all rely on.
環球計時是異常主要的，由於咱們的GPS裝備、電網和金融收集全都依附著由國際計量體系(SI)界說的“秒”。
That's why we use atomic - or microwave - clocks, which measure the vibration of a caesium atom to keep time, just like the tiny swinging of a pendulum. And since 1967, a SI second has been defined as 9,192,631,770 cycles of those vibrations. But, as specific as that sounds, even the best atomic clocks can still accumulate an error of about 1 nanosecond over a month.
這也是咱們運用原子鐘或微波鐘的緣故原由，它們經由過程丈量銫原子的擺動來計時，就像一個鐘擺在稍微擺動。自1967年以來，國際計量體系界說的一秒便是91億9263萬1770次這類渺小擺動。然則，只管聽起來很精準，縱然是最佳的原子鐘在一個月的時光內也仍舊會積聚出十億分之一秒的偏差。
Optical clocks, on the other hand, are even more precise. They work similarly to atomic clocks, but they measure the oscillations of atoms or ions that vibrate at frequencies about 100,000 times higher than microwave frequencies - which is a whole lot faster, and therefore more accurate.
另外一方面，光學鐘卻更加準確。它們的事情道理與原子鐘類似，丈量原子或離子的振動，但這些原子或離子的擺動頻率約莫是微波頻率的10萬倍上下——這要快很多，是以也更加精確。
"Our study is a milestone in terms of practical implementation of optical clocks," said one of the researchers, Christian Grebing, from the National Metrology Institute of Germany, "The message is that we could today implement these optical clocks into the time-keeping infrastructure that we have now, and we would gain."
德國國度計量研討所的一名研討職員克裏斯蒂安·格雷賓說：“就光學鐘的現實運用而言，咱們的研討是一塊裏程碑。也便是說，本日咱們可以把這些光學鐘納入今朝具有的計時基本舉措措施當中，並且，咱們會有所收成。”
That gain is the ability to squeeze more into every second. Us slow humans wouldn't really notice, but things like financial time stamps would be more specific ,and banks would be able to complete even more transactions per second.
收成便是可以在每秒當中擠入更多的時間。咱們這些慢騰騰的人類不會真正留意到這點變更，然則金融時光戳之類的器械會更加精準，而銀行乃至會在每秒鐘完成更多的生意業務。
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