I try to write as much as possible about science on Sundays. While researching an interesting topic, I came across a subject that many of us might say, 'What does it matter?', and experts of the topic will gather in Dubai on November 20th.

The issue is quite deep: The synchronization, or rather adjustment, of clocks. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's 'Time Regulation Institute' might come to your mind. There are institutions suitable for Tanpınar's novel: 'The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Time and Frequency Division Network Synchronization Project' and similar institutes...

They deal with the lack of coordination between universal time and atomic time. The reason for these institutions to gather is to find a solution to this lack of coordination.

In his remarkable novel, Tanpınar humorously criticizes our society's perpetual vacillation between Eastern and Western values and its consequent inability to keep up with time. Similarly, these experts are metaphorically tearing their hair out over the mere seconds of discrepancy between the universal time we adhere to and atomic time. This situation mirrors the lack of synchronization in time, akin to the cultural and ideological disparities between East and West.

What is this deviation?

Some of us will say, 'What is this?' Well, the universal time, known as UT1, the astronomical clock, is lagging. Compared to what? To the International Atomic Time (TAI). That's just a few ticks or seconds of lag. Since 1972, the atomic clock has been paused and our universal time is allowed to catch up. Coordination! This intervention creates UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

Immediately after the adjustment is made, as you might guess, our clock starts to lag again with millisecond deviations. When a total delay of about one second accumulates, then again an adjustment of one or two ticks is considered.

There is a problem here: when should this intervention, this pause, take place? It’s very hard to predict. Therefore, they adjust every few years. But technology companies, countries, and 'timekeepers of the world' are unhappy with this situation. They want the coordination between the two clocks to happen automatically, without any intervention, and any 'second gap'.

Universal time is adjusted to the rotation of the Earth. But there are fluctuations in the Earth's rotation, and this causes deviations in our clocks. Scientists who noticed this created the atomic clock, and have been achieving synchronization between the two clocks since 1972.

The atomic clock, working with cesium atoms, creates a 'stable, reliable frequency'. This frequency now provides the regularity needed by our digital clocks that govern all of life.

The proliferation of cesium clocks, and companies like Facebook and Amazon creating their clocks, have increased the chaos and loss of synchronization. Stock exchanges also require the synchronization of an atomic clock for their operations and many other issues, working within milliseconds.

Second or minute?

The meeting in Dubai will discuss, 'What if we stop fussing with the second and perform the coordination when the time difference accumulates to a minute?'

Some institute directors say, 'Dealing with seconds is driving me crazy.' Scientific articles also suggest, 'Let's correct by the minute.' Dr. Judah Levine, an expert from the American 'Time Regulation Institute', says, 'We all need a bit of relaxation. Let’s stop dealing with milliseconds, seconds, and this madness.'

If this proposal is accepted, the world might be allowed to deviate from atomic time for perhaps as long as half a century. When the deviation or delay reaches one minute, it will be declared, 'It's time to adjust the clocks,' and at that point, the atomic clock will be stopped not for just a second, but for a full minute.

To date, the atomic clock has not objected to a one-second pause and has tolerated this intervention.

But we don’t know what it will say when it comes to waiting for a minute.

The problem is in the world!

Like the problem between East and West...