TECH NEWS

The Leap Second Is No More

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“There are continuing problems with positive leap seconds even after 50 years, and the concern was that the negative leap second would be much more serious because its effects had never been tested,” Levine says.

BIPM time department director Patrizia Tavella confirmed those concerns in an email to WIRED. “The probability of a negative leap second convinced us [to] set the application date in 2027,” she wrote, adding that there was added urgency following tests by an industry standards group that “showed several failures with a negative leap.”

Tavella says the group is waiting until May 20, 2027 to implement it because it's the anniversary of 1875 signing of the Metre Convention, creating BIPM, as well as Metrology Day. In other words, it’s the perfect time to mark the passing of time—or more accurately, the lack thereof.

The death of the leap second makes life easier for everyone now. “The...

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'Remarkably close to the minimum permitted by physics': this superconducting memory bit runs at an estimated 5x the limit, but at -269°C the fridge shrinks its claimed million-fold edge over today’s chips considerably

* Hebrew University physicists estimate a single superconducting vortex can act as a memory bit at about five times Landauer's limit, at 4.2 kelvin * The fivefold figure is a simulation-based estimate anchored to continuous-drive measurements, not a measured erasure, however * The release's million-fold edge over conventional