Recently, scientists were able to “warp” time on the smallest scale ever. Time may be warped in the presence of high gravitational fields/high speeds, according to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This is referred to as time dilation.

Clocks also tick differently based on gravity in various situations. With the aid of the most precise clocks on the planet, scientists at JILA were able to calculate time dilation at the lowest scale ever.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder collaborated to form JILA. With this experiment, they’ve opened the door to manufacturing clocks that are 50 times more accurate than those on the market now.

According to the study, which was published in Nature on Wednesday, the feat might assist unravel several scientific riddles of the universe, such as the “union of general relativity and quantum mechanics.”

The aim of these scientists is to conceptually link time and space, meaning that they are inextricably linked and affect each other. JILA scientists have spent the last several years attempting to pioneer time precision with atomic clocks, which are considered the most precise ways to measure time, with the capacity to lose only one second over 15 billion years.

Scientists may be able to look at atomic waves at “the curvature of spacetime, where the classical and quantum worlds meet” as atomic clocks get more precise. JILA scientists were able to quantify time dilation from a distance of only one millimeter. This small-scale accomplishment may aid scientists in understanding the consequences of time dilation across greater distances.

Furthermore, they were able to maintain the atoms in a condition of “quantum coherence” for 37 seconds, during which their behavior became predictable.