Credit: N. Hanacek/NIST Our modern world depends on clocks that tap the secrets hidden inside atoms — the tiny building blocks of matter that make up everything from our bodies to the device you’re reading this on to the planet Earth.  If you’ve checked the time on your phone, computer or smartwatch today, you have aligned yourself with the steady, unchanging beats of atoms. If you’ve used GPS for directions or flown on a plane, atomic clocks have helped deliver you safely to your destination. If you’ve bought or sold a stock, that transaction was stamped in atomic time. If you’ve made a phone call or searched the web, you have tapped into networks synced by atoms. But how do we use these tiny particles to tell time? To peer into atoms and extract their beats, we must wield light with extreme and exquisite precision. And we must ingeniously hack into the strange and wondrous world of quantum physics, the rules that govern the world at its tiniest scales — including inside the atom.…