Felicitas Arias, the patron of time, has made us reflect on the measurement and storage of it.
We start this New Year 2022 remembering that we finish the 1st term travelling in time … beyond the works The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dalí or Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne … Felicitas Arias, the patron of time, has made us reflect on the measurement and storage of it.
With a degree in Astronomy from the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and a doctorate in Astrometry, Celestial Mechanics and Geodesy from the Paris Observatory, she directed for almost twenty years the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIMP) that provides the international time reference.
In this intergovernmental body, in charge of regulating physical and chemical measurements worldwide, Felicitas directed the Time, Frequency and Gravimetry section, and coordinated the activities to establish the international time reference from 1999 to 2017. For eighteen years, the work of Arias consisted of coordinating the activity of the eighty-three institutes distributed throughout the world, which operate more than five hundred atomic clocks and permanently send data to determine Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Impressive, right? We are still speechless by its also didactic presentation and simplicity with which it has transmitted such great discoveries to us. Just with a simple click you can delve into her research and discoveries and, above all, you will observe her passion from inspiration when she was a child thanks to an uncle who was fond of astronomical observation who taught her to ‘look’ at the sky.
From Galileo Galilei, Huyggens, John Harrison, the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Buenos Aires Naval Observatory to Cesium-133… from the sky to the atom!
Mobile telephony, satellites, global positioning systems such as GPS, Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou or communication through the Internet, require the synchronization of clocks throughout the world… amazing!
Arias tells us that “basically, for our day to day, having a second added every one, two or three years, is simply imperceptible: it would accumulate one hour of delay every 7,200 years! With current technology, there is no point in adding that second, because it brings us more problems than solutions.» what do you think? 🙂
Thank you, Congratulations, for this great day among us!
