Talks and shows

Fragile times: Why accurate and resilient timekeeping is critical

Discover the fragility of time and time keeping with the National Physical Laboratory

Via NPL
NPL

Join us as we delve into the fascinating and delicate realm of timekeeping. Discover how atomic clocks have replaced the Earth as our time reference and how the present and future challenges in measuring and delivering time are met head-on from the home of UK time, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

We kick off with Peter Whibberley, a senior scientist with many years experience exploring the world of timekeeping. Peter will take us on a brief journey through the history of time, explaining how the national time scale is created today, and how it is a key part of the global collaboration that creates the precise time and frequency measurement on which life and business relies today.

Resilient time signal dissemination from the national time scale is crucial to NPL's mission, ensuring traceable timestamping and time synchronisation across industries, enhancing market clarity in the financial sector, and enabling regulatory forensics in the event of a crash. Elena Parsons will share valuable insights into how NPL spearheads the delivery of resilient time signals, granting industry access through innovation and service nodes. Gain a deeper understanding of the vital role played by NPL in maintaining accurate and reliable timekeeping.

Looking to the near future, Leon Lobo, a visionary in the field, will shed light on what lies ahead for the world of timekeeping. Explore the strategies and innovations aimed at future-proofing resilient time, mitigating our over-reliance on weak and vulnerable signals from space-based global navigation satellite systems such as GPS. Learn about the leading-edge initiatives spearheaded by NPL to ensure timekeeping remains robust and adaptable in an ever-changing world.

Lastly, looking even further ahead at developments in precision timekeeping, we close the lecture with Rachel Godun, a principal scientist in the field, who unveils NPL's research programme into next-generation optical atomic clocks. Discover how these clocks will improve the performance of future time scales and are so accurate that they will even be used to redefine the unit of time itself.

Take advantage of this extraordinary evening at the Royal Institution that looks at where we have come from; the challenges all around us; and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

Event type

This is a theatre and livestream event for an adult audience, where the speakers and audience in our Theatre are joined by our audience online. 

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For any queries regarding this event please get in touch by phone 020 7409 2992 or email events@ri.ac.uk.

Timing

Doors to the theatre will open at 6.45pm and the talk will begin at 7.00pm.

Accessibility

The event will take place on the first floor and there is step-free access from the street via lift.

The closest underground station is Green Park, which is step-free.

There is space at floor level in the theatre for wheelchair users.

Seating is usually unreserved for our events. If you and your group require seating reservations, please do let us know by emailing us at events@ri.ac.uk, and we’ll be more than happy to help.

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Our theatre is equipped with an Audio Induction Loop. 

Covid guidelines

Face masks are no longer mandatory and wearing one in our Theatre and at other Ri events is at your discretion, however please do not attend the Ri if you are displaying Covid symptoms or, if you have tested, the result remains positive. Thank you for respecting other people and their choices, and for helping us keep all of our visitors and staff safe and well.

Event terms and conditions

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