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President Approves FY 1999 Appropriations for NIST
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President Approves FY 1999 Appropriations for NIST
On Oct. 21, 1998, President Clinton signed into law NIST's fiscal year 1999 budget appropriation of $647.1 million (91 percent of, or $67.9 million under, the President's FY 1999 request). All of NIST's four major programs were given sufficient funding to continue promoting U.S. economic growth.
Highlighting the budget is $275.2 million for the Measurement and Standards Laboratories (96 percent of, or $11 million under, the President's FY 1999 request); $4.9 million for the Baldrige National Quality Program (91 percent of, or $0.5 million under, the President's FY 1999 request) that will permit NIST to establish and manage Baldrige awards for performance excellence in education and healthcare; $203.5 million (78 percent of, or $56.4 million under, the President's FY 1999 request) for the Advanced Technology Program, including $66 million for new awards in FY 1999; and $106.8 million (the President's full FY 1999 request) for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership to continue providing the federal share of funding needed to support the network of centers serving smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Finally, the appropriations provide $56.7 million (the President's full FY 1999 request) for upgrading NIST's 30- to 45-year-old research facilities. Congress has approved the use of a portion of all Department of Commerce FY 1999 appropriations--including NIST's--through June 15, 1999, so that issues involving the Census Bureau can be resolved.
A detailed history of the FY 1999 budget process is available by faxed request to (301) 926-1630 or on NIST's World Wide Web site (http://www.nist.gov; click on "News" and then "Budget Updates").
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Legislation Benefits Smaller Manufacturers, Quality and Education
Before the end of October, President Clinton is expected to sign the "Technology Administration Act of 1998" into law. The act is a reworking of a proposed authorization (a bill that sets funding limits for specific fiscal years) for the Department of Commerce's Technology Administration (which includes NIST). The final legislation contains no budget figures but does enable NIST to:
- co-fund centers in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership beyond the current six-year limit after a positive review;
- add education and healthcare categories to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award;
- raise the maximum number of Baldrige Awards in each category from two to three;
- donate educationally useful federal equipment to elementary and secondary schools; and
- establish a program for math and science teachers in elementary and secondary schools to help them teach students important lessons in measurements, manufacturing and other areas in which NIST possesses world-class expertise.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
More Y2K Help Available for Small Manufacturers
Efforts to help small manufacturers in rural America find and assess problems caused by the year 2000 computer problem (referred to as Y2K) have been stepped up through an agreement signed last week by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Agriculture. The memorandum of understanding outlines a variety of ways that the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership and USDA can help small manufacturers address the Y2K problem and improve their productivity and competitiveness, especially in the food, fiber and wood products industries. The agreement was signed as part of National Y2K Action Week, Oct. 19-23, 1998.
Also last week, MEP debuted its expanded Y2K web site (http://www.mep.nist.gov/hottopics/). In addition to new resources, the expansion provides additional support for small manufacturers using MEP's computer-based system, Conversion 2000: Y2K Self-Help Tool. The tool helps smaller manufacturers conduct an inventory of equipment, identify core business systems, develop contingency plans and coordinate remediation projects.
For assistance with Y2K conversion, as well as other business and technical assistance, small manufacturers can call 1-800-MEP-4MFG (637-4634) to reach the MEP center serving their region.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767
NIST, Two Universities to Manage Protein Data Bank
The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics, a consortium composed of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the University of California at San Diego and NIST, has received a $10 million, five-year award from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The award will enable the consortium to operate and significantly extend the capabilities of the Protein Data Bank, a critical tool for unlocking the secrets of biological systems in pharmaceutical and medical research.
The RCSB's Protein Data Bank, in addition to being a repository of data, now will provide mechanisms for researchers to understand biological function through investigation of sequence and molecular structure. Previously maintained by Brookhaven National Laboratory, the PDB's change in management will be transparent and seamless as it moves to the RCSB with the addition of new capabilities for searching and for improving the consistency and content of existing and future depositions.
The transfer of the Protein Data Bank from Brookhaven to the RCSB will result in several improvements, including a higher, faster throughput; a greater number of query capabilities, including more complex and more accurate queries; a uniform archive; a dynamic cross-link to other databases; and the availability of structure validation and structure and sequence neighboring.
The PDB data will be stored and mirrored at all three RCSB sites. The PDB also will be mirrored at key sites worldwide. The Protein Data Bank is accessible from the World Wide Web at http://www.rcsb.org.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy, (301) 975-4403
NIST and CU Physicists Win Major Science Prize
Physicists Eric A. Cornell of NIST and Carl E. Wieman of the University of Colorado at Boulder have won the Lorentz Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science. The medal, which honors Hendrik A. Lorentz (1853-1928), a lifelong member of the Academy and the co-winner of the Nobel Physics Prize in 1902, was awarded for Cornell and Wieman's 1995 creation of the first Bose-Einstein condensate, a new form of matter predicted by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Bose more than 70 years ago. To achieve the condensate, Cornell and Wieman cooled rubidium atoms to about 170 billionths of a degree above absolute zero in a two-step process using laser and magnetic traps.
The two researchers will be presented with the gold Lorentz Medal at a special session of the Academy's Science Division on Jan. 25, 1999. The prize is awarded every four years. Cornell and Wieman are both fellows of JILA, a Boulder, Colo., interdisciplinary institute for research and graduate education in the physical sciences operated jointly by NIST and CU-Boulder. Cornell also is an adjoint professor of physics at CU-Boulder.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
NIST Investigation Report Available as Case Study
On April 21, 1995, the contents of a large blender reacted and exploded at a chemical plant in Lodi, N.J. Five employees were killed, another four were injured and 300 people in nearby homes and businesses had to be evacuated. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration asked NIST to evaluate the accident to see if there was metallurgical or mechanical failure. The conclusions reached at the time were included in the Chemical Accident Investigation Report prepared by OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
A more comprehensive description of the NIST metallurgical investigation--for use as a case study in failure analysis--has just been published. The report marks the first time that NIST has exclusively detailed its role.
Why did the explosion occur? The NIST researchers ruled out a metal failure because "the stainless steel shell of the blender was structurally sound and had very little damage. [NIST] found no evidence that the shell was breached prior to the accident or that the chemical reactions initiated at the surface of the shell."
OSHA and EPA determined that the explosion was most likely caused by a small amount of water getting into the chemicals being processed. At the time of the accident, the blender was being used to mix aluminum powder, sodium hydrosulfite, potassium carbonate and benzaldehyde for use as a gold precipitating agent. One possible entry point for the water was a worn seal found during the investigation.
For a copy of the metallurgical investigation report, contact Sarabeth Harris, MS 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337, (303) 497-3237. Ask for paper no. 33-98.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
New Capacitance Standard May Improve Calibration Service
NIST researchers have developed and operated a new type of capacitance standard with an imprecision of less than one part per million. The standard brings together for the first time two best-in-the-world technologies developed at NIST.
The first technology is an electron pump, based on ultra-small tunnel junctions and operating at temperatures less than 0.1 Kelvin (minus 273.05 degrees Celsius or minus 459.49 degrees Fahrenheit), which passes and counts individual electrons with an uncertainty of 0.01 parts per million. The second technology is a cryogenic, vacuum-gap capacitor that has exceptionally low leakage and frequency dependence because it does not contain the dielectric materials that make ordinary capacitors imperfect.
After the pump places about 100 million electrons on the capacitor, the resulting voltage across the capacitor is measured, and the capacitance is the ratio of pumped charge to measured voltage. When compared with the best commercial capacitance meter, the standard shows agreement well within 2 parts per million calibration uncertainty of the commercial instrument. With improvements to room temperature electronics, the new standard should reach an imprecision of about 0.1 parts per million.
A test of absolute uncertainty will be done by comparing the new standard with NIST's calculable capacitor, which is the fundamental standard for capacitance in the SI system of units. If the new standard performs over a range of frequencies with an absolute uncertainty of 0.1 parts per million, as expected, it could offer significant improvement in NIST's calibration service for capacitance.
In addition, the new standard continues a trend in metrology of basing standards on properties of nature, in this case the quantization of charge, rather than physical artifacts. Natural or quantum standards are easier to replicate than artifacts and thus allow improved consistency of measurements at standards labs worldwide.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael
Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: October 26, 1998
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