News of science:The leap second survives — for at least three more years.
Delegates at an international telecommunications meeting in Geneva were to decide on Thursday whether to recommend the elimination of leap seconds, which are occasionally added to the world’s atomic clocks to keep them synchronized with Earth’s rotational cycles.
Richard C. Beaird, a State Department official who led the American delegation, said in a statement that discussions at the meeting “revealed a heightened degree of interest that has not previously existed on this issue.” With no consensus among the delegates, officials at the International Telecommunication Union, part of the United Nations, sent the issue back to a panel of experts for further study. A revised proposal will be introduced no earlier than 2015.
Mr. Beaird characterized the delay as “a significant step forward” and said the burst of interest in leap seconds “should allow for a decision that will have the widest possible backing.”
Opponents of leap seconds, led by the United States, say the sporadic addition of these timekeeping hiccups is a potential nightmare for computer networks that depend on precise time to coordinate communications.
But nations like Britain that wish to keep the current system say that eliminating leap seconds might create bigger problems.
They also oppose the uncoupling of time from the notion that the length of a day is tied to the motion of Earth and Sun. Because Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing, days are lengthening. Without leap seconds, noon on the clock would slide earlier and earlier in the morning.
The postponement pleased P. Kenneth Seidelmann, a University of Virginia professor who has argued in favor of leap seconds, but he said the study panel had been working on the issue for the better part of 10 years without reaching consensus. “What are they going to accomplish in the next three?” he asked.
The last leap second occurred in 2008. The next one will be added to clocks this year at the end of June.
News source:nytimes
Delegates at an international telecommunications meeting in Geneva were to decide on Thursday whether to recommend the elimination of leap seconds, which are occasionally added to the world’s atomic clocks to keep them synchronized with Earth’s rotational cycles.
Richard C. Beaird, a State Department official who led the American delegation, said in a statement that discussions at the meeting “revealed a heightened degree of interest that has not previously existed on this issue.” With no consensus among the delegates, officials at the International Telecommunication Union, part of the United Nations, sent the issue back to a panel of experts for further study. A revised proposal will be introduced no earlier than 2015.
Mr. Beaird characterized the delay as “a significant step forward” and said the burst of interest in leap seconds “should allow for a decision that will have the widest possible backing.”
Opponents of leap seconds, led by the United States, say the sporadic addition of these timekeeping hiccups is a potential nightmare for computer networks that depend on precise time to coordinate communications.
But nations like Britain that wish to keep the current system say that eliminating leap seconds might create bigger problems.
They also oppose the uncoupling of time from the notion that the length of a day is tied to the motion of Earth and Sun. Because Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing, days are lengthening. Without leap seconds, noon on the clock would slide earlier and earlier in the morning.
The postponement pleased P. Kenneth Seidelmann, a University of Virginia professor who has argued in favor of leap seconds, but he said the study panel had been working on the issue for the better part of 10 years without reaching consensus. “What are they going to accomplish in the next three?” he asked.
The last leap second occurred in 2008. The next one will be added to clocks this year at the end of June.
News source:nytimes
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