The global order is in flux: Trump in the Whitehouse wages wars using trade and aid as weapons. Britain teeters on the brink of leaving the European Union.

And yet, the UK is completely dependent upon both for satellite mapping, navigation and communications technology.

The US-based GPS is a network of more than 30 satellites used by billions of phones, handsets and other devices in this country. The European Union plans to double the footprint of satellites with a system the UK had, until Brexit, contributed to building.

University of Sussex researchers are working on what they believe could offer Britain ticket out of this two-way way bind. The answer? A system that employs portable, optical atomic clocks as a means of extremely accurate time-keeping and that completely ends the need for navigation system here on Earth to talk to an orbiting network of satellites.

Dr Alessia Pasquazi from the Epic Lab at the University of Sussex’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is developing the idea and she joins us at The Reg’s first lecture of the year and the new decade to introduce this technology, discuss its potential and map the road to adoption.

Alessia will explain how portable atomic clocks improve on GPS and Galileo, discuss recent breakthroughs in the research, and she examines the hurdles that remain. This being the new year and a new decade, Alessia will look into the immediate and deep future to look at what lays in store for optical atomic clocks in the mighty, multi-billion-dollar space and telecommunications industries.

Join Alessia at Bloomsbury's Rugby Tavern on Jan 23. Doors open at 18:30 UK time for a 19:00 start. Refreshments will be served at 19:45 followed by an audience Q&A. Tickets here.