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Antivirals, atomic clocks and superconductors: RAZOR full episode
RAZOR
Europe;
30:00

 

One scientist has described it as the missing piece of the puzzle in the fight against COVID-19. Antivirals are now starting to be approved to help reduce the risk of people becoming seriously ill.  

But what are the side effects and what impact will they have in the real world? Emma Keeling spoke to three scientists to see how antivirals will help the world to live with COVID-19.

How long is a second? 

It's a question most of us have never even really considered. But one that has captivated physicists for centuries, not least because the most accurate answer to that question promises to reveal the deepest truths about the make-up of our universe. 

Jun Ye is a Chinese-American physicist and clockmaker extraordinaire at the University of Colorado in the U.S.  He has built an optical lattice clock, a cloud of hundreds of thousands of strontium atoms, which is inching closer to redefining the second. Ye's clock is so precise that it neither gains nor loses one second in some 15 billion years, roughly the age of the universe.

 

Superconductor revolution

Lastly, for decades, researchers have pursued an elusive goal with truly world-changing potential - room-temperature superconductors. We explore the upcoming superconductor revolution. 

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