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How are molecular clocks calibrated?

2007-10-29 15:22:58 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

4 answers

Since you are not talking about an atomic clock. You are about to invent a molecular clock. Possible, but it is not existed yet.
It will depend on the oscillation of atoms inside the molecule, which is Einstein's temperature. The problem is that, what kind of crystal is it?- to be used in a molecular clock.
Molecular Clock Hypothesis (MCH)) is a technique in genetics to date when two species diverged. Elapsed time is deduced by applying a time scale to the number of molecular differences measured between the species' DNA sequences or proteins. It is sometimes called a gene clock or evolutionary clock.
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2007-10-30 16:13:30 · answer #1 · answered by chanljkk 7 · 0 0

In the olden days, clocks were calibrated by observatories measuring the exact moment that the Sun passed overhead and setting the clocks accordingly.

In 1967 the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the second of atomic time as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

In other words, the standard of time is no longer the position of the Sun in the sky, but a count of cesium 133 atom vibrations. There are numerous cesium clocks in the world counting cesium atom vibrations and they are all checked against each other to ensure the count is accurate. Observatories still track the motion of the Earth, but that is now less accurate than the atomic clocks. Every now and then a "leap second" is added to the official time to keep the more accurate new time in sync with the Earth's rotation, but it is really the Earth's rotation that is being calibrated here, not the clocks.

2007-10-29 15:58:57 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1 0

If you mean, atomic clocks, they are not. Certain crystals have a known, precise frequency of vibration, this vibration is measured by a man made detector to give a very precise indication of the length of a man made second, which is the unit we use to measure the passage of time.

2007-10-29 15:29:08 · answer #3 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 1 0

A. There VNTRs or variable number tendom repeats or the non coding regions mutate very slowly at almost negligible rate

2016-05-26 01:21:01 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

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