US imposes sanctions on 'rogue' ICC hours after former judge wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Extract from ABC News

By Riley Stuart in London

• Topic:Peace Process

about 3 hours ago

US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize. (Reuters: Evan Vucci)

In short: 

New US sanctions on the International Criminal Court will target its day-to-day operations.

The ICC is the main global court for prosecuting allegations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

What's next?

The US is permitting certain ICC operations to continue for 180 days.

The US has announced it will impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), hours after one of its former judges was given the Nobel Peace Prize, which Donald Trump covets.

While the White House has previously targeted individuals and other groups linked to the ICC, the latest measures announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio are on the court itself.

US allies including Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and several European nations criticised the sanctions, which will freeze the court's assets in the US, as well as block financial transactions and IT agreements the ICC has with US companies.

Mr Rubio's announcement came shortly after former ICC judge Navanethem "Navi" Pillay — a South African jurist who previously served as the United Nations human rights chief — was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Trump has made it clear for several years he believes he deserves the award, which is judged by an independent panel in Norway.

While the US president has not yet commented on being overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize, his account on the Truth Social platform did publicise a post from one of his former lawyers, David Schoen, who said the award's judging committee had "shamed itself beyond repair".

Navanethem Pillay makes a point at a forum in Germany on Friday. (Dpa: Daniel Karmann via AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Mr Trump for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

While members of the general public are not permitted to nominate, world leaders, national-level politicians, university professors, past Nobel recipients and directors of foreign policy institutions are among those who can.

"President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans," Mr Rubio said on Friday.

"That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate."

ICC criticises 'intimidating' sanctions

Despite the announcement, the US has allowed certain ICC operations to continue for 180 days.

The ICC is the main international judicial body for dealing with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, among other things.

It was established in 2002 and has 125 member states, including Australia, although the US is not among them.

Donald Trump's text to Norway's prime minister, annotated

A text message from the US president to Norway's prime minister has fanned the flames of the geopolitical dumpster fire engulfing Greenland. We've analysed Donald Trump's claims to see if they stack up.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Friday saying they "strongly disagree" with the US sanctions.

"If put into effect, these sanctions will have a significant impact on the Court's work, its dedicated staff and their families," the statement said.

The ICC condemned the Trump administration's move and called on its member nations to help it continue its work.

In a statement, it said the sanctions were "aimed at disrupting the court's operations" and "intimidating" its employees.

"The court, for its part, will not be deterred,"

it said.

Mr Trump has previously lashed out after the Nobel Peace Prize has been bestowed on someone else.

Several months after Mr Trump was overlooked for the award in 2025, the president had an irate exchange with Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, in which he incorrectly asserted the country's government was responsible for the decision.

Last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to Mr Trump during a meeting at the White House earlier this year.

Among a glittering, decades-long career, this year's recipient, Ms Pillay, sat on the ICC's Appeals Chamber from 2003-2008.

The court has issued arrest warrants for dozens of people since it was established, including Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Mr Netanyahu.

On Friday, the UN's human rights chief Volker Turk said the new US sanctions were "unacceptable".

The sanctions are expected to severely disrupt the court's operations, given how many US-based companies control global IT and banking systems.

Britain says consulate servicing Palestinians to remain open as UK Mission, Jerusalem.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:World Politics

about 9 hours ago

The former British consulate building which will now operate as a "UK Mission" in East Jerusalem. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)

In short:

The UK government says it will continue delivering "vital services" at UK Mission, Jerusalem as Israel says most diplomats will leave the building.

Israel said in September it would shut the consulate in retaliation for UK sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

What's next?

British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband says the building will remain open under its new name.

Britain says its nearly 200-year-old consulate in Jerusalem will remain operating at a smaller scale after Israel ordered it shut in a dispute over sanctions on settlements.

The British Foreign Secretary says the building will operate as a "UK Mission" in the city.

Israel last month issued a 30-day deadline for Britain to close the consulate after London announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a dispute that has strained relations between the longtime allies. 

Israel to close UK consulate

Britain, France and Canada are banning imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in a move that has prompted swift retaliation and could spark a broader geopolitical storm.

The deadline expired on Thursday, local time.

Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign minister, said in a statement that the consulate in East Jerusalem would formally end operations, but that some British diplomats would be allowed to continue work in the building under a deal struck between Israel and Britain.

Mr Saar's British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, said his country does not accept that Israel has the legal right to close the consulate. 

The consulate is in a part of the city Israel captured in the 1967 war and which Israel later annexed in a move that most countries do not recognise.

A plaque reading British Consulate General and another sign for its consular section were removed from the building on Thursday. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)

Mr Miliband said that following discussions with Israel "our consulate general building will not be closing and will be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem from today".

He said the UK Mission would continue to "deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people".

The United Nations and most countries consider the Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law. 

Israel disputes this.

Workers remove signage from consulate building

Plaques reading British Consulate General and another sign for its consular section had been removed from the building.

The British flag was still flying over the building earlier in the day.

Israel has been adamant the consulate will close even as Britain sought to keep it open, including sending the country's top national security adviser to Israel last week for talks.

A flag flies at the UK Mission, Jerusalem, a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he would close it. (Reuters: Ammar Awad/File)

Britain's consulate was founded in 1839, long before the state of Israel was established in 1948.

The closure order does not affect Britain's embassy in Tel Aviv which handles diplomatic relations with Israel's government.

The consulate, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, handles Britain's relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza.

It also provides consular services to Palestinians.

Britain's consulate in Jerusalem was founded in 1839. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)

The British sanctions announcement, and Israel's order to close the consulate, mark a new low in a relationship that has deteriorated over the past three years. 

Britain ⁠has repeatedly criticised Israel over its actions in the war in Gaza and over Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which faces an election later this month, has accused Britain's governing Labour Party of being hostile towards Israel.

Reuters/AFP

Russian attack on bus stop kills at least 33 in Ukraine, officials say.

 Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

about 4 hours ago

One of the two passenger buses struck by projectiles in Kramatorsk, near the frontline in eastern Ukraine. (Donetsk Region Prosecutor's Office via AFP)

In short: 

At least 33 people have been killed in a Russian strike on a bus stop in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, authorities say.

The strikes come a day after 22 people were killed when a Russian missile struck a five-storey apartment block in Pryluky.

What's next?

President Zelenskyy says the bus attack will not go unanswered.

A Russian strike on a bus stop in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 33 people, authorities say.

Another 18 people were wounded in the attack on Thursday, local time, on a street where two city buses were operating, police said. 

Police said the buses were hit with a glide bomb. 

Images posted to X by the Ukrainian parliament's commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, showed a burned-out shell of a bus. Another image showed several bodies strewn on the ground.

"Russia is systematically destroying Kramatorsk and terrorising civilians," Mr Lubinets said.

The Ukrainian parliament's commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, posted several images to social media calling for accountability. (Supplied: Dmytro Lubinets)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Russia's war in Ukraine is at a dangerous stalemate and the United States will continue to try to facilitate a settlement to end the conflict.

"We'd love to see a negotiated settlement to this war that is permanent, enduring, and fair," Mr Rubio told reporters during a visit to Portugal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said negotiators will ​visit the United States for talks on Friday ​and ‌Saturday, as he urged ‌US President ⁠Donald Trump to step up pressure ‌on ​Russia.

"One ‌cannot, on the one hand, negotiate with the ​Russians about ‌future economic projects, whilst ⁠on the ‌other hand ‌say that we find ourselves ‌in some sort of … ‌diplomatic ​stalemate,"

he said.

Mr Zelenskyy also said there would be a response to the latest attack.

"This strike will not go unanswered. Russia is trying to destroy all life in Donbas, and a response from the world is a must," he posted on X.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says search and rescue efforts are still underway after an apartment building was struck in Pryluky. (Supplied: Volodymyr Zelenskyy)

The strikes come just a day after five children were among 22 killed when a Russian missile struck a five-storey apartment block in Pryluky, in the northern Chernigiv region.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband visited the scene with Mr Zelenskyy on Thursday morning, local time.

Mr Miliband posted on social media, "My message was clear: we will stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes".

Moscow's forces have stepped up drone and guided-bomb strikes on Kramatorsk and other cities in Ukraine's so-called "fortress belt", local officials say, the backbone of its defences in the Donetsk region.

Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede the rest of the region still under its control before it stops fighting, which Kyiv refuses to do.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband (left) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to the media in the town of Pryluky. (Reuters: Valentyn Ogirenko)

Civilian deaths increase

There has been mounting concern about the increase in civilian casualties in the conflict, as both sides step up long-range attacks beyond their borders.

Germany at risk of 'violent conflict' with Russia, intelligence chief warns

The warning from a German intelligence chief comes as Russia carries out strikes across Ukraine and on a Turkish civilian boat in the Black Sea.

Since Russia first invaded in 2022, Ukraine has accused its forces of deliberately attacking and killing civilians.

The United Nations has verified more than 17,000 civilian deaths throughout the war, but says the real number is considerably higher.

Kramatorsk City Council called the bus stop attack "another horrific crime committed by the Russian army against the civilian population".

"Once again, the Russians have struck a location where there are absolutely no military targets," it added.

Ukraine hits Russian data centre

Drones hit a data centre owned by Russia's Yandex, the country's leading AI and technology company said on Thursday, in the first major attack on a Russian data hub since the start of the war with Ukraine.

The company, often dubbed "Russia's Google", said its core consumer services were not affected, but did not describe the extent of the damage.

Russia has conducted a strike campaign on Ukrainian data centres and telecommunications infrastructure over the past month, including targets in central Kyiv.

Yandex said the attack on its Sasovo hub, one of its five large data centres, caused a fire and forced it to suspend operations at the site, which hosts tens of thousands of servers. 

Reuters/AFP

Earliest fast radio burst from 3 billion years after big bang detected.

Extract from ABC News

By science reporter Jacinta Bowler

• ABC Science

• Topic:Space

about 5 hours ago

The mysterious flash was found in MeerKAT telescope data. (Wikimedia: MeerKAT/SKAO/SARAO/CC BY 3.0)

In short:

A study has found the oldest fast radio burst yet discovered. 

The mysterious, high-energy burst has been linked to a galaxy from the early universe 10 billion years ago.  

What's next?

Researchers believe these far-travelled bursts may help scientists understand more about the vast cosmic web, which forms the backbone of the universe. 

Long before our solar system formed, a millisecond flash of light with a huge amount of energy erupted from a galaxy far, far away.

A study published in Science today captures the moment the flash, called FRB 20240304B, arrived on Earth 10 billion years later.

Study lead author Manisha Caleb, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney, said this time frame was "insane", even for astronomers.

"If you put this in human perspective, when the light left the source, the Sun didn't exist, the solar system didn't exist, no humans existed," Dr Caleb said.

"Civilisation formed and we built radio telescopes and then we just happened to look at the right patch of sky at the right time."

The mysterious flash of radio energy, called a fast radio burst, is the oldest yet-discovered and may help scientists better understand the universe.

What are FRBs?

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are extremely high-energy pulses of radio waves that almost always come from outside our galaxy.

FRBs were first discovered in 2007 by researchers at Australia's Parkes Radio Telescope. (Supplied: CSIRO/David McClenaghan)

An Australian team found the first FRB using the Parkes telescope in 2007.

Despite astronomers finding hundreds since then, Dr Caleb said we do not know what produces them.

"We know there are thousands of these events that go off in the sky every day," she said.

"And because they occur at radio wavelengths they are invisible to the human eye."

Lasting only a few milliseconds, they produce immense energy.

"In those few milliseconds, they emit as much energy as the Sun would over several days," she said.

Ryan Shannon, an astrophysicist from Swinburne University who has discovered other FRBs, said one potential source could be a magnetar, a neutron star with a powerful magnetic field.

"We found there's a magnetar in our own galaxy that emitted a pulse which looked like an FRB," Professor Shannon said.

"But I wouldn't rule out having more than one way to produce an FRB."

What is FRB 20240304B?

The newly discovered FRB was recorded in 2024 by the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which is reflected in its name.

"The B means it was the second FRB to be discovered that day," Dr Caleb said.

"I don't know who discovered the first one, but I like to think ours is way cooler."

Manisha Caleb (left) and co-author Themiya Nanayakkara lead an international team of researchers on the new study. (Supplied: Stefanie Zingsheim)

The team's FRB had a very high "dispersion measure" (DM), meaning the light travelled a long way before being captured.

"Typically we find [FRBs with] a few hundred DM, or maybe even a thousand," Dr Caleb said.

"With about 2,400 units of DM we figured it had to be coming from really far away."

The team then used the James Webb Space Telescope to pinpoint where the FRB came from, homing in on a galaxy that existed just 3 billion years after the big bang.

"The galaxy itself was surprisingly small," Dr Caleb said.

"We didn't expect to find the FRB to be associated with such a puny little dwarf galaxy that's actively forming stars."

How can FRBs map the cosmic web?

Professor Shannon, who was not involved in the study, said the discovery "pushed the frontiers of FRBs".

"One of the big achievements was that this was an FRB that [they] could pinpoint its location on the sky," he said.

He also noted that dispersion from these far-flung FRBs could be useful to map the cosmic web.

This skeleton-like framework can tell us how the universe evolved.

"The majority of the normal matter in the universe, the stuff that Earth, you and I are made of … is spread out in the cosmic web," Professor Shannon said.

"We're able to use the FRBs now to study the cosmic web in ways that were impossible before."

Just even clocking this ancient flash was exciting.

"You've got this brief flash, lasting milliseconds, and here we are billions of years later lucky enough to catch it," he said.

NASA rover takes striking image of dawn's early light on Mars.

Extract from ABC News

• Topic:Space

about 7 hours ago

A view of the Martian surface showing wind-carved crags called yardangs on Mount Sharp. (NASA: JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

In short:

A new image from Mars has been released, showing a dawn over wind-carved cliffs.

The scene was snapped by NASA's Curiosity rover at 8:30 am local Mars time.

What's next?

Scientists hope Curiosity will reach the base of the crags, known as yardangs, sometime in 2027.

NASA has released a striking image of dawn on the Martian surface taken by its Curiosity rover, showing sunlight bathing jagged crags formed billions of years ago.

Curiosity, which is about the size of a Mini Cooper, landed in 2012 in Gale Crater near the Martian equator, and since 2014 has been climbing Mount Sharp, a 5 kilometre-tall mountain rising from the crater floor. 

Panoramic Martian views

The Mars Perseverance rover provides a panoramic look at the Jezero Crater site on the Red Planet.

The image was taken by the six-wheeled rover's Mastcam camera about an hour after the sun rose above a landscape featuring wind-carved cliffs in the distance, in August.

"The bright craggy peaks in the distance are a rock layer that is quite different in appearance from all the layers the rover has driven through so far," said planetary scientist Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

"We think it once was wind-blown sediment, maybe sand or maybe even ash that blew into the crater from nearby volcanic activity. 

"After the sediment hardened into rock, eons of wind carved up the rock layer into ridges called yardangs," the Curiosity project scientist said.

The yardang layer most likely formed about 3 billion years ago, around the same time as the rest of the mountain, according to Mr Vasavada.

This layer spans about 16 kilometres across the north-western reaches of Mount Sharp.

"However, the yardang layer doesn't appear to be part of the continuous stack of layers that make up the layer-cake of Mount Sharp. It was added on a little later. It's above what geologists call an unconformity: a gap in time where previous layers eroded down before new layers were deposited on top," Mr Vasavada said.

'You can almost feel the silence'

The rover on its gradual ascent up the mountain has gained upwards of 1km in elevation, the most ever climbed on Mars, according to NASA.

Curiosity's five years

NASA's Curiosity rover has already taught us a lot in the past five years, but NASA scientists think there is still much more to come.

Mount Sharp is built of layers, each recording a period of the planet's geological past. In studying these layers, scientists have learned more about bodies of water — lakes and streams — that long ago covered this region, at a time when Mars was wetter and warmer than the cold and desolate place it is today.

Mr Vasavada said NASA hopes Curiosity will reach the yardang layer in 2027 or 2028, at which time it will use its instruments to scrutinise the geology there.

Curiosity has been studying the geology and climate of Mars and examining whether it once bore conditions conducive to harbouring microbial life. 

It is one of two NASA rovers operating on Mars. 

The Perseverance rover is currently traversing the margins of Jezero Crater in the northern hemisphere.

Curiosity's new image of Martian dawn is certainly otherworldly.

"This scene has a wildness that reminds me of a road trip through Monument Valley, Arizona," Mr Vasavada said.

"You can almost feel the silence and the endless open space under the sky. But as familiar as that sounds, the sky is orange and the sunrise has shades of blue. It's like Earth, but it's definitely Mars."

Reuters

'Platypus-like' fossil in China is oldest-known semiaquatic mammal-like animal.

Extract from ABC News

By environment reporter Peter de Kruijff

• ABC Science

• Topic:Fossils

about 4 hours ago

A fossil has been discovered in China of a new type of ancient mammal species thought to be semiaquatic like a platypus. (University of Chicago: April I. Neander)

In short:

A fossil of an ancient mammal relative with platypus-like appendages has been found in China.

Megacauda sungei appears to be an early example of a semiaquatic mammal-like creature.

The ancient animal lived about 160 million years ago in the middle Jurassic period.

With a body like a platypus, tail of an otter and a canine head, a fossil found in China shows the earliest signs of a mammal-like animal with a semiaquatic lifestyle.

Megacauda sungei lived about 168 to 163 million years ago in the Jurassic period when massive dinosaurs dominated the planet.

A new study published in Nature places Megacauda on the mammaliaforms family tree under the extinct Docodonta branch, early cousins of true mammals.

Weighing in at about 1 to 2 kilograms, Megacauda is the largest of the Jurassic mammaliaforms.

It was about the same size as a modern platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).

An x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy photograph of the Megacauda fossil. (Supplied: Nature)

Senior study author and palaeontologist Zhe-Xi Luo from the University of Chicago, said the discovery of Megacauda suggested the capability to swim originated early in mammal evolution.

"Semiaquatic mammals are not uncommon, in today’s world; there are 140 living mammal species that are riparian-dependent," he said.

How similar to a platypus was Megacauda?

Palaeontologist Suzanne Hand, an emeritus professor at University of New South Wales who was not involved in the study, said there were a lot of morphological parallels between Megacauda and platypus.

"Such as foot, ankle and pelvis morphology, expanded ribs and rib cage, webbed feet, flattened tail and exceptionally thick fur, to name just a few features," she said.

Professor Luo said there were also a lot of differences to the platypus.

"Unlike the platypus … Megacauda had strong canine and sectorial teeth for carnivorous feeding in water.

"We were excited that the fossil was stunningly complete — a vast majority of bones appear to be preserved."

The fossil was found in 2015, in the south-east of Inner Mongolia, from a fossil-bearing layer of rock called the Haifanggou Formation.

Professor Luo said this deposit was "teeming with salamanders".

"Because Megacauda has carnivorous teeth, they can feed on small fishes and salamanders."

Further study of the internal microstructure of Megacauda's limb bones may provide further information about how it lived, according to Professor Hand.

"Including how much time it might have spent foraging in water versus on land," she said.

But the fossil already provides some other details on mammalian evolution beyond furry forays into the water.

The preservation of soft tissues in the throat of the fossil shows it was developed for milk feeding as an infant and swallowing food as an adult, features also seen in modern mammals.

What's so good about being semiaquatic?

Professor Hand said there were several potential reasons for a semiaquatic lifestyle to have evolved independently many times among mammals and pre-mammals.

"Evolutionary incentives for this include the exploitation of a previously untapped, abundant and rich food resource, reduced resource competition from land-living relatives, and new opportunities for dispersal, resulting in significant habitat and range extensions.

"Semiaquatic animals have also been shown to survive catastrophic events significantly better than fully terrestrial animals."

Megacauda takes the earliest-known semiaquatic mammaliaforms crown from Castorocauda, a prehistoric beaver-like creature, which lived in the same region between 164 and 159 million years ago. 

The earliest-known semiaquatic true mammal, Dongoconodon platycauda, was found in a 120 million-year-old Chinese fossil deposit.

The animal, which may have looked a bit like a rakali, lived in the early Cretaceous and was estimated to be 40 centimetres long and weigh 190 grams, scientists reported last week in Nature Communications.

In Australia, the earliest semiaquatic monotreme, Kryoryctes cadburyi, lived about 100 million years ago.

Modern platypuses diverged from echidnas and other mammals about 55 million years ago, but the oldest platypus fossil found is only about 3.8 million years old.

Nuclear clocks could become world's most accurate timekeepers.

Extract from ABC News

• By Ellen Phiddian

• ABC Science

• Topic:Physics

about 4 hours ago

The experimental clocks operate by firing very precise lasers at thorium-containing crystals. (Supplied: T. Schumm/TU Wien)

In short:

Two teams of scientists have built the first working "nuclear clocks", which could become the world's most accurate timekeepers.

The clocks could be used in navigation, mining, earthquake prediction, and potentially discovering new areas of physics.

What's next?

Both clocks are in their experimental stages, but researchers say they will be rapidly improved.

A pair of crystals illuminated with lasers could become the world's most accurate clocks.

Two teams of scientists have made the world's first "nuclear clocks", which keep time by tracking tiny changes in the centre of atoms.

Both clocks are so accurate that if they ran for 30 million years, they would only be off by a second.

This accuracy does not surpass the best clocks in operation right now, but both teams are confident they will be able to improve their clocks significantly.

The researchers have published their work in two papers in the journal Nature.

University of New South Wales physicist Victor Flambaum said nuclear clocks had the potential to become the "most accurate instrument humans have ever built".

Professor Flambaum said the studies, which he was not involved with, represented an exciting step forward.

The clocks could be used to improve technology such as GPS, mining surveys and solve physics mysteries.

How does a nuclear clock work?

Atoms, which compose all the matter we interact with, are made from a "nucleus" containing a dense cluster of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a spacious cloud of electrons.

Atomic clocks, currently the most accurate measures of time in the world, work by tracking changes in the electrons around the nucleus of a caesium atom.

But these clocks are approaching a point where it is physically impossible to make them more accurate.

Atoms are made from a dense "nucleus" of clustered protons and neutrons (red and blue), surrounded by a cloud of moving electrons (grey) which can be thousands of times larger in size. (Pixabay: geralt)

Nuclear clocks use a similar logic to atomic clocks, but they track even smaller changes in the nucleus of an atom.

"A nucleus is very small compared to [a whole] atom," Professor Flambaum said.

Because it is thousands of times smaller, a nucleus could be used to measure much more subtle changes in time, leading to a more accurate clock.

Why couldn't we build nuclear clocks before?

Nuclear clocks have been theorised for more than two decades, but until recently technological and theoretical constraints have made them impossible to build.

Thorsten Schumm, co-author on one of the new studies and a physicist at Vienna University of Technology, said the main turning point in his team's research came a couple of years ago.

In early 2024 the team used a laser to produce the predicted change in an atomic nucleus that would allow time to be measured.

Professor Flambaum said progress had been "very rapid" since that discovery.

The TU Wien team showed in 2024 that atomic nuclei could change states when prompted by a laser, giving them the "tick" of a nuclear clock. (Supplied: Matthias Heisler/TU Wien)

Tsinghua University physicist and study co-author Shiqian Ding said his team needed to solve several different problems to make the nuclear clock.

The problems included making a material with the right clock nuclei inside it and developing lasers precise enough to produce reliable changes.

"There was no single step that suddenly made the clock possible," Dr Ding said.

What is a nuclear clock made from?

A specific type of thorium atom, thorium-229, has the properties to make it usable as a timekeeper.

Both teams grew crystals containing thorium-229, then suspended them under ultra-precise lasers that could produce tiny, nucleus-sized "ticks" in the thorium.

The researchers also have plans to improve nuclear clocks so they can outperform atomic clocks.

Atomic clocks at Australia's National Measurement Institute. (Supplied: National Measurement Institute)

Professor Schumm said thorium-229 had potential to be more stable than atomic clocks, meaning nuclear clocks could become very small and practical to move around.

"We envision a chip-scale device," he said.

What would nuclear clocks be used for?

Nuclear clocks could be used to improve navigation systems such as GPS, which has driven military interest in the latest iterations of atomic clocks.

Professor Flambaum said nuclear clocks could be accurate enough to measure the manipulation of time by gravity, per Einstein's theories of relativity.

This could make them useful in mining exploration or earthquake prediction.

“By measuring, accurately, the gradient of gravitational fields, we can see what is under the earth,” Professor Flambaum said.

The super-accurate timekeeping could also be used in physics research, particularly in probing mysterious dark matter.

"I am particularly excited about using nuclear clocks to test fundamental physics," Dr Ding said.

Professor Schumm's team has already used their nuclear clock to detect evidence of dark matter, as proof of concept.

He is planning to install a second nuclear clock in Innsbruck within a year, to accompany the clock in Vienna and measure subtle changes in Earth's movement around the Sun.

Professor Flambaum said there was a "race" among several other groups to make practical nuclear clocks and that any one of them could be the first to outperform atomic clocks.

"The progress is so fast, I expect it will be soon," he said.