In the Dark

Measurement, the simple process of comparing an unknown quantity with a standard quantity, is the essential component of all scientific endeavours. We are currently about to enter a new epoch of metrology, one which will permit the breath-taking progress of the last hundred years to continue unimpeded into the next century and beyond.

The dawn of this new age has been heralded this week by the publication of an apparently innocuous paper in the journal Metrologia. The paper is entitled:

Data and Analysis for the CODATA 2017 Special Fundamental Constants Adjustment

and its authors, Peter Mohr, David Newell, Barry Taylor and Eite Tiesinga constitute the Committee on Data for Science and Technology, commonly referred to as CODATA. In this article I will try to explain the relevance of CODATA’s paper to developments in the science of metrology.

The Past

The way human beings began to make sense…