@scientificamerican: What happens when the world’s clocks stop following the Sun? Scientists have just voted to phase out the leap second, replacing it with a “leap hour” that will allow official time to drift as much as an hour from Earth’s rotation. The change will make timekeeping easier for our digital infrastructure, but it also marks a bigger shift away from humanity’s oldest way of keeping time: watching the sky. Story: Emma Gometz Music: Storyblocks Images: Storyblocks, Tech Rechard, Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), “The Story of Time” by Rolex, Wikimedia Commons (Andrzej Barabasz, Fæ, Acabashi, Gnsin), NIST Archives Collection, National Physical Laboratory, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab, NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA LaRC Office of Education, Periscope Films, “atomic leap second” by LeapSecond, Bloomberg Surveillance, America This Morning Read more of Emma’s story at the link in bio. #leapsecond #explained #timekeeping #atomicclock #sciencenews

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Friday 30 October 2026 16:50:57 GMT