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New "pendulum" for the ytterbium clock - At the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the optical Ytterbium clock has experienced an increase in accuracy. It is exact to 17 digits after the decimal point now. The scientists have succeeded in exciting a quantum-mechanically strongly "forbidden" transition of this ion and - in particular - in measuring it with extreme accuracy. The results are published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters: N. Huntemann et al: High-accuracy optical clock based on the octupole transition in 171Yb+, Phys. Rev. Lett. DOI 108,090801 (2012)