This special issue of Physics World includes an interview with physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, whose latest book The Order of Time dubs time “perhaps the greatest mystery”. Sidney Perkowitz examines physicists’ attempts through the centuries to unravel time, while Philip Ball sheds light on exotic materials called “time crystals”. Jon Cartwright looks at how atomic clocks can determine precisely “when” stock-market transactions take place – in an effort to spot potentially fraudulent transactions – while Robert P Crease wonders why we’re fooled by time.
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