This week on the channel +22M views this week

Veritasium's atomic-clock journey takes to the helicopter

Emilia Gyles visits Western Australian researchers testing laser links, part of a documentary that has reached 6.5 million views.

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Veritasium Story of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

No device could prove Einstein wrong... until now

Things we can learn from the video

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7:23Optical clocks using ytterbium offer greater precision than microwave cesium clocks.
8:38Laser cooling and optical lattices restrain atoms, reducing distortions caused by their motion.
17:07A laser link carries the mountain clock's signal toward Boulder through free space and fiber optics.
20:00Fast-moving mirrors compensate for atmospheric disturbances that disrupt the optical link.
26:16Beat notes help explain how frequency combs connect optical frequencies with signals electronics can count.
32:07Gregor asks Laura Sinclair and Andrew Ludlow whether their clock comparisons agree with general relativity.

The clock goes airborne. In Veritasium's most-watched new upload, Emilia Gyles joins researchers in Western Australia as they test the delicate business of connecting an atomic clock aboard a helicopter to a terminal on a physics-building roof.

Keeping the clocks precise is only part of the problem. The atmosphere disturbs the laser link carrying their signals, so fast-moving mirrors must compensate. Before takeoff, researcher Lilani Toms-Hardman shows the onboard equipment, then announces: "Clock's up and running, let's go!" The work points toward linking clocks on the ground with satellites in orbit.

"No device could prove Einstein wrong... until now" has reached roughly 6.5 million views and remains the channel's busiest video right now. Its title poses a bigger challenge than simply building a better timepiece: can increasingly precise comparisons expose a departure from general relativity? The closing conversation returns to whether the results match Einstein's predictions. The documentary also includes a sponsored segment.

Viewers are finding comedy in the precision, imagining the consequences of arriving a billionth of a second late for work. Others dwell on the extraordinary combination of lasers, trapped atoms and extreme cooling required to make the measurement possible.

Across three new uploads, Einstein shares the week with biology. "Is there something faster than light?" revisits his argument with Bohr, while "Why doesn't your heart get tired like other muscles do?" supplies the newest question. The earlier "The Insane Engineering of Fiber Optics" also remains a substantial daily draw.

Subscribers were unchanged over the week, and daily viewing is below its usual level. Among nearby science channels, Kurzgesagt is enjoying elevated daily viewing, while Vsauce is also running below its usual pace. Veritasium nevertheless added nearly 22 million views across the week, with clocks, glass and cardiac muscle all contributing.

Published on Trari

Where next?

Also in Science and experimentsA video worth knowingHank Green tests RFK Jr.'s measles explanation against vaccination trendsHis commentary contrasts Kennedy's account of pandemic disruption with falling MMR coverage and the demands of containing a highly infectious disease.Channel: Hank Green · Story of October 31, 2026

A different discovery todayVideo taking off 47x its usual first dayDiane Sawyer's Patrick Stewart interview closes World News TonightThe October 29 edition also covers Alaska's Senate probes and a Pentagon firing, but its comment section belongs largely to the actor.Channel: ABC News · Story of October 31, 2026

What viewers say

Imagine working here and being a billionth of a second late for work.
@adamhesik8732See it on YouTube
Einstein... keeping scientists busy since 1915.
@dgoddardSee it on YouTube
I just realised, if i want to tell someone who is absolutely out of touch, how an atomic clock works (not scientifically, just casually) i need to tell them at least 4 entirely different stories about 4 scientific areas, before i start to speak about clocks and how lasers are involved.
Science is fascinating.
@rivájSee it on YouTube

6 more comments

Einstein: And where did that get you? Back to me
@vndkmwtSee it on YouTube
"Cooling down atoms with lasers to a millionth of a degree above absolute zero, while simultaneously trapping the aforementioned floating atoms in one spot, all to measure time so accurately we may change the understanding of gravity" is not something I was prepared to hear today.
Science is freakin' amazing. This is exactly why I'm not ashamed to be called a nerd. Actually quite proud of it.

*Edit:* Holy moly.This is the most likes I've ever gotten. Cheers!
@SingularisFoxSee it on YouTube
I’m a Physics PhD student in one of the collaborating labs in Boulder. Really surreal to see what I have heard updates on in meetings turn into a Veritasium video!!
@DarioTringaliSee it on YouTube
I've personally invented an anti gravity machine. It's a machine that prints signs that say "I hate gravity".
@notenoughmonkeysSee it on YouTube
32:53 it's crazy how something as revolutionary as Einstein's relativity theory, which broke "classical" physics just about a century ago is now considered "classical" itself
@SmirnaffskiySee it on YouTube
I did my honours thesis at the physics department at UWA, and I learnt to ride a unicycle on that roof.
@mostlyunreliableSee it on YouTube