Measuring time and how that can help us to find our way in the world

SMALL PRINT:ARE YOU running late for a meeting? Or maybe you woke up before the alarm. Keeping track of time is one of those things we take for granted in everyday life, but for scientists it can open up a raft of questions, and being able to measure time accurately is key to technologies, such as GPS.

Today, Dr Bill Phillips will give a talk and demonstration called Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe at Dublin City University as part of its Nobel Laureate Lecture Series.

“Before Einstein, people thought that that time would pass at the same rate for everyone and space – the size and shape of things – would be the same for everyone,” explains Phillips, a professor of physics at The University of Maryland and a scientist at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“Einstein showed that time and space changed depending on who is looking at them and how fast the observers are moving with respect to each other.”

Phillips knows a fair bit about the “cool stuff” too. He was awarded a Nobel prize in 1997 for his work in laser cooling, a technology that can have applications in atomic clocks, highly accurate time-keepers that use atoms as “tickers”.

Cooling to extremely low temperatures can help to make atomic clocks more effective, which in turn can improve technologies such as GPS.

Dr Phillips hopes the talk will highlight how scientific research can have an impact on “things we all care about, like finding our way around using GPS”.

The event, which starts at 2pm, will be broadcast on Magnet's online television service, aertv.ie.