Since 1972, global timekeepers have been adding extra seconds, known as leap seconds, to clock time. The purpose is to keep Earth’s rotation and Universal Standard Time (UTC) in sync. This is important in areas such as astronomy, where clock time acts as a proxy for Earth’s movement. But experts meeting in France have now voted to abolish them. The extra seconds threatened to disrupt computer systems and any industry sector requiring accurate timing. In 2008, when a leap second was due to be added to the clock, Google was unwilling to take the risk of adding it in one go. Instead, it “smeared” the extra second across a day in increments so small its computer servers wouldn’t notice. The decision shows that our usual ideas of clocks as abstract, mathematical and objective are incorrect. Instead, it appears that big players in industry can indeed bend time to their needs.
Moving from seconds to millenia, new research has gathered fresh insights about humans from about 23,000 years ago when they walked across the muddy margins of an ancient lake in what is now White Sands, New Mexico. They represent one of the earliest records of people in the Americas. The study has shown that they lived, much as we do, in a period when the climate was rapidly changing.
Ukraine’s drone war against Russia has been made possible by the Starlink satellite communications network. But a speed limit has now been imposed on the military’s use of the system, which has compromised its drone fleets and undermined air defences.
