
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


The official U.S. time is kept on a cesium fountain clock named NIST-F1, located in Boulder, Colorado. On a recent trip to Boulder, Ira took a trip to see the clock. He spoke with Elizabeth Donley, acting head of the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, about keeping the official U.S. time on track—and how NIST is using advanced physics to develop ever more precise and stable ways to measure time.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI
By Science Friday and WNYC Studios4.4
60206,020 ratings
The official U.S. time is kept on a cesium fountain clock named NIST-F1, located in Boulder, Colorado. On a recent trip to Boulder, Ira took a trip to see the clock. He spoke with Elizabeth Donley, acting head of the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, about keeping the official U.S. time on track—and how NIST is using advanced physics to develop ever more precise and stable ways to measure time.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

91,297 Listeners

21,954 Listeners

43,837 Listeners

32,246 Listeners

38,430 Listeners

30,609 Listeners

43,687 Listeners

38,950 Listeners

1,576 Listeners

484 Listeners

945 Listeners

12,704 Listeners

14,450 Listeners

12,130 Listeners

818 Listeners

1,542 Listeners

3,506 Listeners

2,800 Listeners

1,405 Listeners

9,556 Listeners

1,196 Listeners

5,569 Listeners

5,767 Listeners

421 Listeners

16,512 Listeners

6,592 Listeners

670 Listeners

2,821 Listeners

2,303 Listeners

644 Listeners

1,965 Listeners

82 Listeners

246 Listeners

20 Listeners