And enjoy your extra second tonight, wherever you may be…
British physicists and official timekeepers around the world will insert an extra second or “leap second” into the new year countdown to bring the most accurate atomic clocks in line with the astronomical day.
“The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be corrected, so this New Year’s Eve we will experience a rare 61-second minute at the very end of 2008 and revellers all over the UK will have an extra second to celebrate,” said Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington who is helping to coordinate the time update.