3 times more accurate Atomic clock (+/- 1 sec/300 million years)

View of the laser of the optical lattice clocks (OLC) in a laboratory at the Paris Observatory July 22, 2013. France-based physicists have designed a clock whose use of laser beams to measure atomic vibrations makes it up to three times more accurate than atomic clocks and could lead to a more precise definition of the second. The team of five researchers at the Paris Observatory says the new timekeeper is so accurate it will neither gain nor lose a second over a period of 300 million years, against 100 million years for the atomic clocks around the world that set time. While such a high degree of precision may seem a scientist's fad, it could improve the resolution of global positioning systems (GPS), help smartphones download data faster and refine high-frequency trading on financial markets, already measured in microseconds (millionths of a second).