How Long Is One Second? Hear the "Time Team's" View on Racing Against the Clock
A unit of the Information Support Force achieves a three-stage leap of "build—catch up—surpass" in research outcomes——
The "Time Team's" View on Racing Against the Clock
■ PLA Daily reporters Jia Qilong and Xu Min, special correspondent Zhang Qinlin
"How long is one second?"
When reporters recently visited a unit of the Information Support Force and posed this question to the unit's "Time Team," the answers were eye-opening——
One second—the smallest unit of time perceptible in everyday life—can be subdivided into one thousand milliseconds or one billion nanoseconds. In one second, the "Fuxing" high-speed train travels nearly 100 meters; a supercomputer can complete one quadrillion operations. In one second, the Earth travels approximately 30 kilometers in its orbit around the sun; light traverses nearly 300,000 kilometers through the cosmos……
"If you divide one second into many tiny equal parts, our work is to ensure, through research, that each of those parts is accurate and stable." Engineer Shi, head of the "Time Team," explained that in the "era of counting seconds," whether commanders are synchronizing watches before battle or missiles are locking onto targets, the importance of time precision goes without saying. Precision guidance, electronic countermeasures, system-of-systems coordination (体系协同)…… as the forms of warfare accelerate in their evolution, the demands on time precision grow ever higher, and milliseconds may determine victory or defeat on the battlefield.
Orienting toward war, conducting research for war. The unit's leadership told reporters that the "Time Team" has always maintained a spirit of urgency, focusing on independent research and development in time-precision research and applied technology, with research outcomes achieving a three-stage leap of "build—catch up—surpass." At the end of last year, the "Time Team" successfully resolved a critical technical problem, once again elevating time precision, and their research outcomes entered the first tier in the relevant field.
Engineer Shi has spent many years working deeply in the field of time-precision research, yet faced with the rapid development of frontier technologies, he often feels a "competency panic" (本领恐慌): "Technology develops with each passing day. For us, falling even slightly behind can often mean a generational gap."
More than 20 years ago, when Engineer Shi was still a captain, a news report he came across while reviewing literature—documenting the technology gap between China and the international community—struck him deeply: having technology "choked at the neck" (卡脖子) means being subject to others' control; building an independently controllable technology system is not only a matter of winning on the battlefield but concerns the future of the military. Under the guidance of a mentor, he and several comrades formed the "Time Team." Yet scientific research is a path full of thorns and unknowns, and passion alone is far from sufficient.
"At the start, almost none of the team members had a relevant professional background. Everyone brought their own skills to bear (八仙过海各显神通)—some devoured paper after paper and then verified through experiments; some pursued cross-disciplinary doctoral degrees, turning from stars in their original fields into 'newcomers'……" Recalling the pioneering journey, the members of the "Time Team" remember it vividly: the equipment was borrowed, the software was written by themselves, and the cables were connected by their own hands.
"Domestic research in this area started late, and there were no mature technologies to draw on. Everyone first conducted separate research and then gathered to discuss, often arguing until their faces turned red……" Team member Engineer Fu explained that after three years, a certain type of system they were responsible for building began to take shape. At the time, however, this achievement could only reach the baseline level within the industry.
"In order to obtain higher-precision data, we joined hands with manufacturers to tackle the problem together." Engineer Fu recounted that on one occasion, to verify the stable operating duration of the system, he and the manufacturer's technical personnel spent more than ten days holed up in a cramped, unventilated underground equipment room.
It was precisely through this kind of effort and perseverance that the "Time Team" became the first in China to achieve the engineering application of a certain piece of equipment, and also helped push the manufacturer to complete equipment optimization.
The "Time Team," which races against every second in its work, has also had moments of "wasting time." When a certain type of equipment was first put into use, it required the "Time Team" to conduct a demonstration. When most people favored choosing a time-saving, labor-saving general-purpose solution, the "Time Team" insisted on an independently designed solution. Laboratory data in the same field was being continuously updated, the new equipment was urgently awaiting a solution, and even the leadership that had always supported them grew so anxious they slammed the table: time waits for no one—why spend time on something that only makes things harder for yourselves?
"We must walk our own path. Only by using our own data can the solution be more reliable." Engineer Shi made a solemn pledge (立下军令状): the task would be completed on time.
The "Time Team" had an even deeper consideration: as technological progress and equipment iteration accelerate, a general-purpose solution can be rendered obsolete within just a few years. An independently designed solution, though time-consuming and labor-intensive, can—once successful—achieve a leap in precision and carries significant importance for the future operation and upgrading of a certain type of system.
"Regardless of whether it was early morning or late at night, the sound of keyboards clicking in the office was unceasing. On the desks, cups of tea and coffee went from hot to cold and back to hot again." Engineer Shi recalled that during that period, the members of the "Time Team" seemed to lose all sense of time, often working straight through an entire day.
Dedicated effort is never in vain. The "Time Team" delivered on time, achieving a new breakthrough in time-precision research, with their results adopted by multiple units as a baseline fallback capability.
"Research outcomes cannot be locked away in the laboratory as 'pretty data.' Making them usable and useful for the troops is our pursuit." Team member Engineer Li said that in recent years, their footprints have covered plateaus, dense forests, and island reefs, with their research outcomes playing an important role in system-of-systems training (体系练兵) and joint inter-service training.
"Isn't time just there? What do you need to do?" a soldier asked Engineer Li during one grassroots investigation visit.
"We are a group of people who study 'how long one second is,' responsible for 'racing against time and keeping pace with the era.'" Engineer Li said with a smile. He believes that as the team becomes embedded in exercises and training and plays its role, comrades will surely come to understand: within the "one second" they study, there is the instant a fighter jet takes off, the moment a shell leaves the barrel, the pulse of the troops' combat capability development, and the heartbeat of the tides of the era. This one second—its effect is in the present; its meaning is in the future.
Reporter's Notes
The Vastness of "10 Nanoseconds"
A Brief History of Time writes: "In the theory of relativity there is no unique absolute time; instead each individual has his own personal measure of time, depending on where he is and how he is moving." Time came into being with the universe. If the nearly 13.8 billion years of the universe's existence were compressed into one second, then a human lifetime would amount to no more than "10 nanoseconds" of the cosmos.
Tracing the growth of the "Time Team" members, their "10 nanoseconds" have been spent in the pursuit captured by the phrase "ten thousand years is too long, seize the day and the hour" (一万年太久，只争朝夕), on the road of self-reliance and self-strengthening in science and technology, and in the struggle to continuously inject driving force into the development of the troops.
Vaster than time and space are a great cause and the breadth of the human spirit. Chairman Xi has encouraged science and technology workers across the country to deepen their patriotic sentiments, carry forward the spirit of struggle, and render meritorious service on the journey of Chinese-style modernization (中国式现代化). Seeking combat power from science and technology is, in essence, seeking combat power from innovative science and technology talent. Building a high-caliber, innovative military talent force calls on every science and technology worker to integrate personal dreams into the Chinese Dream and the Dream of a Strong Military, to press forward day and night without pause, and to accelerate the drive to strengthen the military through struggle.
The journey is long; the mission urges us forward. The "Time Team's" experience of tackling hard problems tells us: to be able to unleash tremendous potential and explore boundless possibilities within a great cause—is this not, in its own way, a fortunate encounter in life?