By When Big Ben chimes midnight tonight to mark the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 it will herald the world-famous clock's 150th anniversary. However, there will have been a fair bit of sweating going on in the background. The engineers that look after the famous clock and bell are having to introduce an extra second just before midnight due to the introduction of a leap second by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).
There have been 23 leap seconds added since they were first introduced in 1972. Peter Whibberley of the National Physical Laboratory - known to his colleagues as "the Time Lord", represents the UK on the IERS. He explains "Ultimately, over many hundreds of years if leap seconds were scrapped, the time of night and day would drift away from the time shown by our clocks," adding "So if nothing was done to bring them back into line, night would be happening at midday as shown by the clocks."
So, feel free to look forward to your extra second of either revellry or sleep tonight.
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