The science of taking measurements. We engineers do lots of it.

Metrology Equipment covers everything from a plastic rule to an electron microscope.

I'm sure DARPA is thinking of difficult projects just to justify themselves and their funding.

And useful as well. Now where is my robot butler?

"Assuming that you dream of hypersonic spaceplanes, portable rayguns, mighty globe-roaming Z-wing stratocruisers, invincible semi-intelligent battle computers and things of that sort, anyway."

Who _doesn't_ dream of that stuff?

Were thwarted by the headlights of an oncoming car.

Why no bugsplat icon??

I'd be happy with a PC clock that is more accurate than the usual +/-3 minutes/day!!

Why ARE PC clocks still so bloody inaccurate?

You've made one physicist laugh today :) miniaturised Stern-Gerlach apparatus indeed!

Mines the one with the Z-pinch in the pocket

Quartz crystals are good at doing about 1 to 40MHz. PC clocks go at 32KHz to reduce power and hence the cost of the backup battery. The frequency of quartz crystals varies with temperature, some more than others. You get what you pay for. The crystal circuit also includes the PCB, a few capacitors an a chip. Variations in these components add a small error to frequency. Many years ago, that was fixed by adding a small variable capacitor, but that costs some money to add, and more to set correctly.

If you want you PC to know the right time, use some network time protocol software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntpd

Still looking for a clock that reads either: "Yes, there is time." or "No, there isn't."

The first thing to say is how misleading the hype is on size & accuracy of Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks. The players in this field always photograph the unpackaged devices because they look small. But to thermally stabilize them, the vacuum packaging they require is pretty large. Second, there are tricks with thermally stabilized multi-mode quartz oscillators & contactless packaging that get you "atomic clock" accuracy in that technology for a fraction of the cost, power consumption & size.

always makes me think of the movie "The Fifth Element"

mines the one with the joystick and headset in the pockets

Hm... that might be of good use when kidnapped, as you now can keep track of time, or get a nice "in eye" nano display showing date and time, a la Neuromancer.

Mine's the one made out of nanobots.

It's easy to laugh at the boffins of DARPA but have you ever wondered at the sometimes irrational things the British government do? Roswell controlled cyborgs the lot of them! Brings a new meaning to having had ones' chips.

DARPA is looking for a primary frequency standard in a 5cc volume, so yea, they are looking for an atomic clock. Unless you can calculate from first principles the vibration frequency of a hunk of quartz.

"DARPA is looking for a primary frequency standard in a 5cc volume"

Imagines the size of moth needed to discreetly hide such a device...

Holy $^&^%*(!

"an ultraminiaturised in-bonce satnav"

Now why can't DARPA talk like that? Or politicians? I'd vote for anyone who said "an ultraminiaturised in-bonce satnav".

Re above ref to Fifth Element... Ah Mila, Mila, Mila...

One of the key snags in handling an everyday cyborg zombie slave is that of knowing where the hell it is

Probably in the girl's bathroom.

DARPA are obviously pissing around with time dilation using tiny wormholes.