Scientists to swap dusty old kilogram for something more stable

FILE PHOTO: A trader weighs gold nuggets at an illegal mine-pit in Walungu territory of South-Kivu province near Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 5, 2014. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe/File Photo

LONDON, (Reuters) - After years of nursing a sometimes dusty cylinder of metal in a vault outside Paris as the global reference for modern mass, scientists are updating the definition of the kilogram.

Just as the redefinition of the second in 1967 helped to ease communication across the world via technologies like GPS and the internet, experts say the change in the kilogram will be better for technology, retail and health - though it probably won't change the price of fish much.