Paul McDevitt
Belling the whale
NOT for the first time in Paris, a cabal of plotters has dethroned a king. This time, however, the coup is bloodless: Le Grand K, a 1-kilogram lump of platinum-iridium alloy kept in a vault outside Paris, is no longer the canonical weight from which all others are derived.
From now on, scientists will define the kilogram based on the Planck constant, making Le Grand K little more than a paperweight.
This got Feedback thinking: isn’t it time we standardised our own favourite units of measurement?
That is easier said than done, given that removing blue whales…
