According to an AP article, the international prototype for the kilogram is mysteriously shrinking. As the article goes on, it gets a little more complicated than this. Apparently there are several of these "master" kilogram weights, but this one is the master. As time has passed, the weights, which started out identical, have drifted over time... some have gotten heavier, while this one has gotten lighter.
This probably won't come as a surprise, but I've got a theory here. The original article says that 50 micrograms -- the amount that of weight the master "lost" -- is about the weight of a fingerprint. Maybe it's not that the master is getting lighter, but that the others are accumulating atmospheric debris, while the master, which is sealed, doesn't accumulate this debris. Maybe our illustrious scientists are over-analyzing.
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