To measure is to know. This paraphrase of an 1883 Lord Kelvin quote is still true today. As the nation's measurement experts, NIST researchers advance basic science and our understanding of the natural world.

By improving the precision of measuring instruments and ways to collect fundamental data, NIST researchers literally expand scientific frontiers. Better scientific tools help researchers in fields such as chemistry, physics, biotechnology, engineering, and environmental science to observe things that have never been seen before.

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