Scientist creates 'mini‑universe' to measure time without a clock

A University of Birmingham scientist has built a "mini-universe" that takes a step toward answering one of science's biggest questions: "What is time?" Publishing his findings in Physical Review Research, Professor Giovanni Barontini shows how it is possible to measure the flow of time without using a clock at all. The new findings provide a scientific model in which a version of time emerges from the experiment itself.