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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Dec. 23, 1999

Contacts: Fred McGehan
(303) 497-3246

Michael Newman
(301) 975-3025

MA 99-14


Media Advisory

A NEW CLOCK FOR THE NEW YEAR ... WITH 20 MILLION YEAR ACCURACY
 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology invites reporters to attend a press conference—either in person or by phone—at which the latest generation of NIST atomic clocks will be unveiled. The new clock is so accurate that it will neither gain nor lose a second in nearly 20 million years. NIST (along with the U.S. Naval Observatory) is the official time keeper for the United States. NIST is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration.

DATE: Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1999, 10 a.m. Mountain Time (12 noon Eastern Time)

PLACE:
NIST Main Bldg (Bldg 1), Room 1107
325 Broadway (2 blocks south of Baseline on Broadway)
Boulder, Colo.

Media check-in begins at 9:30 a.m. MT. Reporters who plan to attend the press conference in Boulder are asked to notify NIST by calling or e-mailing Fred McGehan as listed above.

DETAILS:

The press package, available at the conference (and the day before under embargo by special arrangement), will include a news release, supplemental fact sheets, photos and illustrations. Also available for broadcast media will be B-roll video footage of the clock and a video animation of the clock's internal operation. All of these materials will be available on the World Wide Web at www.nist.gov/fountainclock concurrently with the conference.

Reporters and photographers attending in Boulder will be given an opportunity to visit the laboratory and view the new clock immediately following the press conference.

PHONE LINK:

Reporters who want to attend the press conference via a toll-free, two-way telephone link may call (888) 455-9642, and then give the pass code "clock" and the name "Fred McGehan" to the operator. These calls may be made after 9:45 a.m. MT (11:45 a.m. ET). Reporters will be able to hear the conference and ask questions of the participants. Reporters who plan to call in to the press conference are asked to notify NIST by calling or e-mailing Fred McGehan or Michael Newman as listed above.

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