The Article “A question of time”, written by the academic journal Nature Vol 505 - Issue 7484, on January 22nd 2014, is about London's time keeping, which has been modified by people by replacing a microwave caesium clock by an optical clock based on strontium atoms. The article is divided into 8 unequally sized paragraphs, each with an average of 60 words. 

The article has a subheading “Timekeeping is boosted by the advent of an optical clock based on strontium atoms, and then first talks about the general life of the british clock, time and phone service, then about people and shows whose institution is the punctuality of time. The topic immediately shifts towards the scientific side of how an atomic clock is powered and how it works, where different types of electroscopic waves are mentioned, evolving from atoms decaying. Suggestions are mentioned like using the new optical clock would be more precise, because it would never lose a second even if it would be running for billions of years. The article continues to mention the strontium optical clock, but then describes itself as an article and the company being involved in the race of developing new atomic clocks. History of the Nature journals are mentioned like the survey back in January 2003, and the importance of scientific journals themselves. 

The article itself does not really meet the categories of an op-ed article, which makes it rather unbiased. The author wanted to demonstrate the stubbornness of the British respecting time, where every second is important (punctuality). The text at the beginning is very focused on the punctuality of the British, not only people but also radio stations and any time marking changes. 

First of all, the title states: “A question of time”, which means that something will happen eventually in the future. This is also a little ironic because the article itself is about clocks and their punctuality, such as their existence in the future, in this case these are the strontium optical clocks.  

The main body of the article is also interesting in its own way, since the article starts off with british stubbornness of time, and then into the area of physics and the technology analysing the decay of elements and the counting of atoms, which show the accuracy of the clockwork machine rather than how important it is to keep time when changing the time, even though the article mentions some linkages like “loses one second every 138 million years”. 

Further down the article, more and more chemistry and physics is getting involved into this topic, where elements like strontium are mentioned, which not everyone might know of, or at least what it is and what it does. The author then constantly links the accuracy of time with the scientific part at the end of each paragraph, which makes this article structured like a debate. 

The end is even more interesting, as the author tends to wander off into the direction of timekeeping and journalism, such as fundamental constants like the “Big G” in meteorology. Since the article site Nature appears to be involved in this new timekeeping innovation, the author also tends to promote the optical clock, stating that its the best clock in not losing track of time. The author also uses pronouns like “we” all of a sudden, to address a large group of people involved in this timekeeping concept, so that the reader thinks that this source of information and the clock is real and reliable. 

Overall, the text contains a numerous number of em dashes to emphasize the conclusion of the respective sentence. More brackets get involved towards the middle and the end of the article, when more and more scientific descriptions and information are added for the reader to read and get involved in. In the very end, the author even addresses another article, which makes the reader click on it to read it, which will probably benefit the author and others, since they all seem to be related by Nature, especially after this author used the pronoun of “we”. 

Even in the beginning before the section of the atomic clocks, links to other articles related to atomic clocks and their accuracy already pop up next to the text for the reader to click on - once more emphasizing their togetherness. This use of language suddenly tells us that not only one author is addressing this issue, but also many others, making the reader more involved and entertained by this topic.

The Speaking Clock

The text A question of time, Timekeeping is boosted by the advent of an optical clock based on strontium atoms was an editorial article published by nature - International weekly journal of science on the 22. of January 2014. The article discusses how people in Britain still to this day call the speaking clock and how knowing the time is an essential part of British life. 

The article starts off by stating that even in this day and age of time displays millions of people still call the talking-time line to know the exact time. For some people accuracy matters and with the atomic clock. However,  broadcasters such as BBC Radio have also started giving the time using the speaking clock. But with the atomic clock losing or falling behind a second every 138 million years it is accurate enough for resetting the time, but some people want to know their time more accurately. That’s why a new optical clock has been developed which only loses a second every 5 billion years. Other than being extremely accurate it is also way more stable, which means that the way it loses a second or falls behind is more linear than that of an atomic clock.

The text was written to show how accurately some people need their time, be it for making sure that one’s clocks and watches are set properly after a time-change or to purchases in the stock market, and that yet with the age of digital technology and digital clocks some people still rely on the speaking clock in the UK. Having being created/founded 80 years ago and still being called millions of times a year.

Another reason why the text was written was to display how clocks are becoming more and more accurate as we discover and gain more knowledge about our world and how things work and how they function and how we can use this to make and create new things. It is crazy to think that we have a device that works essentially immaculately and only loses a second of accuracy every 5 billion years, especially when considering that earth its self is 4.5 billion years old. It is also amazing that this device is able to be replicated, for multiple countries/nations to have their own with their own design, possibly making it even more accurate.

The text is very factual and written as a mix between an article and a scientific paper, explaining the concepts and facts but staying simple enough for the average reader to understand what is being discussed.

The purpose of this text was to display the frequent usage and development of the speaking clock and the world of accurate time-telling technology. How and why people use it and how accurate it is.

What is the meaning of time? Why should we care? The editorial “A question of time” from the academic journal Nature, published in 2014, raises the question of the concept of time in an entertaining way and discusses its significance to the world. Through the use of hyperbolas and situational irony, it can be seen that time itself should not be taken for granted by the majority of the population, but rather question the existence of time in the common sense.

The editorial, being the leading article of the published volume, offers unique insights to the essential significance of time “for some people” and the scientific information about optical clocks. The introduction demonstrates a general perception of time, raising the question of the reason why dialing the UK speaking clock is still an “essential part of British life” in the twenty-first century. However, directly after, the article shifts in perspective, suggesting the real significance of accuracy in time. Time is described as the “cultural fabric of everyday life”, a quantity invented by human beings, made like clothes, which wrap around our lives. The idea of time being invented, and not discovered, offers a new reason to the importance of time in the world. It is suggested that we should actually take care of our definition of time. Despite accuracy, however, a key factor in time is stability, which the new optical clock entails. Accuracy and stability demonstrate an “increased precision and reliability of optical clocks”. A sense of reassurance is delivered to people who care deeply about the subject. Time is a constant in our life. Whatever obstacles we may encounter, we know that time does not change, and we can only go forward. The article concludes with the idea to “redefine the second”, which could potentially lead to a heated debate about whether it is actually necessary to redefine our invention of the second.

Hyperbolas are used on multiple occasions throughout the article to interest and entertain the reader. The NPL clock is for example one of the most accurate clocks in the world, losing roughly one second every 138 million year – “a sufficient degree of accuracy for a bleary-eyed hour-late commuter”. This is a definite exaggeration of sufficiency in time accuracy for ordinary people, such as commuters, but it also helps the people to question the purpose of the author and article. Why should we care for the overrated accuracy in time? The author itself is well aware that most people would not care whether a second would be lost over millions of years. Another hyperbola is used in the end, when the author describes the new optical clock arriving “bang on time”. A moment being right for an invention is a topic open to debate, and whether the new clock will actually revolutionize the world is worth a discussion as well. The author used the exaggeration to emphasis the importance of this invention. Right after it, to create an entertaining effect, the author uses the ellipse “well, almost”. Throughout the author is well aware of the use of hyperbolas and tries to humorize it by reversing its exaggerations and acknowledging the general perception of time. 

Most importantly, however, the use of situational irony is noteworthy in the article because overall, what the general perception of time is, what we expect, is that time is not very significant to merely live. The article depicts a perspective, we did not expect – the aspect of time actually being important. “For some people, at some times, accuracy matters”. The generality with the word “some” lets the reader doubt about the seriousness of the topic. Who are these people who care about time? The article does not mention a specific group, but we start to understand that these people may be ordinary, someone of us. People who want to know how many seconds are left until midnight at new years for example. When the new optical clock is described by having “much higher, optical frequencies”, the reader may ask himself why he should care. The importance of time is not self-evident, but the article forces the reader to critically think about the subject. Perhaps, there is indeed a wider, well-thought hidden meaning behind the concept of time. We have just not realized its importance yet.

Is the article’s intent to entertain or inform people about time and clocks? Well, it is actually both, a mix of seriousness and humor. As suggested in the article, the majority of people does simply not care enough of the accuracy of a second in a long-term perspective. And who could blame them? We do not need to think critically about the world and complex question to merely survive on this planet. But surviving is not enough for the human race. We have a natural desire to question the world as a whole. As children, we have learned to accept time as a number to tell us when we have to be home or in school. In our childhood, we started to take time for granted. This article forces us to go beyond our comfort zone while offering another perspective on time. What is time actually and why should we care? The editorial does not give us the answer to that question. There is probably no right answer in the world. What the editorial does is to help us to develop our own answer. And perhaps, our answer will lead us to new questions about the world, a never-ending cycle of having questions but never being certain of the answer.