Brains have the alpha waves, computers have their clocks... and radio telescopes have hydrogen masers (essentially, radio-wavelength lasers) to keep both accurate timing and frequency, which are essential for radio inteferometers such as ALMA to work.

This masers live at 5000 m high at the Chajnator plateau, so the work itself is challenging!

https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/announcements/alma-gets-a-new-heartbeat/

#ALMA #ALMAObservatory #Maser #HydrogenMaser #interferometry #heartbeat #FrequencyReference