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Justyna Zwolak poses for a casual photo outdoors on the NIST campus.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie: A Legacy of Innovation and Empowerment for Women in Science

February 12, 2025

Growing up in a country where the first scientist to win a Nobel Prize was a woman helped inspire a NIST researcher to pursue her career in science.

Leroy Jia poses smiling at his desk, with piles of books in the background.

Mathematical Models Can Help Us Understand — and Possibly Treat — Complex Diseases

February 3, 2025

Leroy Jia, Xinyi Liu

What if a computer model could help make us healthier? Researchers at NIST and elsewhere are working to make this a reality for patients with a condition of the esophagus.

Peter Beaucage wears safety glasses as he stands in the lab, holding a piece of equipment on display.

Robots and AI Are Working Together to Bring You Better Medicines, Shampoo and More

December 19, 2024

Peter Beaucage

Products you use every day are carefully formulated in a lab. Experts at NIST are now working to revolutionize how those products are made.

A researcher wearing safety gear kneels at the open door of a lab fridge, displaying a tray of samples.

Sinking Our Teeth Into Science: How Biomedical Engineering Can Help Make Us Healthier

August 21, 2024

Robert A. Gutierrez

From safer dental products to tracking the movement of tiny plastics through gut tissues, regenerative medicine can make us healthier.

NIST researchers Elizabeth Strychalski and David Ross program the robotic arm that operates within the box-like structure of the NIST biofoundry.

The Promise of Synthetic Cells: Revolutionary New Drugs, Outer Space Explorers and Pushing Beyond the Limits of Evolution

July 8, 2024

Scientists are getting closer to creating a living cell from scratch. It could help treat diseases or even create life forms that can be better adapted to space.

A spherical, spiky virus is approached on all sides by Y-shaped antibodies.

You Don’t Learn This in School: My Experience as a NIST Summer Intern

June 4, 2024

George Sellers

The most important thing I remember from being a NIST intern last summer is the power of persistence in research.

Thomas Forbes wears safety glasses as he looks at the screen attached to a piece of equipment in the lab.

Your Future Medications Could Be Personalized for You on a 3D Printer

May 28, 2024

Lawrence Goodman

Your future medications could be made on a 3D printer, and a NIST researcher is working to make sure that process is safe.

NIST biomedical engineer Laurie Locascio places a water sample on a highly sensitive, inexpensive "lab-on-a-chip"

One of NIST’s Most Prolific Inventors Is Also Our Director — and She’s Still an Inventor at Heart

May 16, 2024

Before she was the director of NIST, Laurie E. Locascio invented materials that make us healthier.

Melinda Kleczynski poses sitting at her desk, with a monitor showing data and graphs behind her.

From Diamonds in Your Computer to Safer Medications, NIST Researchers Look at What’s Next for 2024 and Beyond

December 18, 2023

Our up-and-coming researchers look ahead to 2024 and beyond — and tell us how their work will impact the world.

Jerilyn Izac sits at a lab bench with her hands inside a plastic shield, using a device to draw liquid from a plastic container into a tube.

How Measurement Science Can Help Protect Us From Viruses

October 25, 2023

Jerilyn Izac

Imagine if for the next dangerous virus, we could quickly and easily test everyone’s levels of defenses — known as antibodies.

Several metallic envelopes with NIST labels are displayed with Halloween decorations like cobwebs, skeletons and pumpkins.

There Will Be (Precisely Measured) Blood: A Haunted House Tour Through NIST’s Spookiest Reference Materials

September 28, 2023

Megan King

This spooky season, join us for a haunted house tour of the scariest standard reference materials in our labs.

A medical worker wears gloves as she prepares to swab the nose of a female patient.

Measuring the Accuracy of PCR Tests Can Improve Health Care Beyond COVID-19

September 11, 2023

Robert DeJaco

Many of us have taken a COVID-19 test. But, have you ever wondered, after your sample goes off to a lab, exactly how they arrive at a positive or negative result?

Miral Dizdaroglu wears safety glasses as he poses in the lab next to an open spectrometer, which looks a little like a microwave with extra buttons.

How We Studied DNA Damage in Cooked Food — and What It Might Mean for Our Health

August 24, 2023

Miral Dizdaroglu

When you eat plants or meat, you’re also eating a tiny amount of that plant or animal’s DNA. But what happens to that plant or animal DNA when you cook the food before eating it?

Kandice Taylor, in safety glasses, laughs as she pours liquids into a glass flask that is overflowing with foam.

I’m Helping My Garden Vegetables — and My Students — Bloom Where They Are Planted

August 10, 2023

Kandice Taylor

Middle school is the perfect time to plant the seed for a child to grow a lifelong love of science.

Alshae' Logan-Jackson wears a purple coverall and safety glasses in the lab as she uses tweezers to hold a small white disk.

Protecting People From Plumbing Pathogens Is Personal to Me

July 20, 2023

Alshae’ Logan-Jackson

Pathogens can get into our water through plumbing and are especially dangerous for people with compromised immune systems.

Drawing of Nikola Tesla with his chin propped on his hand.

What’s in a Name? The Tesla

June 27, 2023

Sandy Ressler

Do you enjoy flipping on the light switch? Well, you can thank Nikola Tesla — born 167 years ago today.

Illustration shows tiny colored pieces of plastic floating under the surface of the ocean with sunlight shining through.

Small Particles, Big Problem: Measuring Microplastics’ Impact on Fish

June 20, 2023

Meredith Evans Seeley

Viruses are not just a problem for humans. Viruses are common in our oceans and aquatic environments, too.

Justin Zook in a lab surrounded by genetic sequencing machines

Our Human Genes Are Diverse. Our Team Is Helping Create a DNA Reference Library to Reflect That.

May 11, 2023

Justin Zook

To unlock the full potential of genetic testing and related medical research, we need a diverse, global human genome, known as the pangenome.

Melissa Phillips, wearing safety glasses, poses leaning over an open chest freezer, holding a plastic bag of spinach.

Organic, Vegetarian or Carnivore: Whatever You Eat, My Lab Is Working to Keep It Safe

April 24, 2023

Melissa Phillips

The levels of contaminants in our food supply are, generally, decreasing, but we still need to make sure our food is safe. And measuring tiny things (and big things) is what we do best here at NIST.

Ming Zheng stands outside smiling and holding a model of a nanotube made of a lattice of smaller tubes.

To See Life in a Drop of Blood

July 7, 2022

Ming Zheng

A NIST researcher shares his excitement about the promise of a hybrid molecule that can detect disease.

Yellowish blades of kelp are growing under the surface of the water.

Improving Recycling, Tracking Mercury and Analyzing Kelp: A Sample of Eco-Friendly Research Featured on NIST Social Media

June 8, 2022

Riley Wilson

Preserving our planet's health is no small feat, and NIST researchers are tackling the challenge from multiple angles.

Colorized micrograph shows cells with pink centers and turquoise edges on a black background.

How Henrietta Lacks Changed My View of Human Cells as a Physicist

May 27, 2022

Greta Babakhanova

A NIST researcher has developed a whole different kind of appreciation for her samples.

Illustration shows a pattern of repeating DNA strands with a shadowy figure in a trenchcoat and hat lurking behind.

How Secure Is Your DNA?

May 19, 2022

Ronald Pulivarti

Is genomic data distinct from other data types? How should cybersecurity protection be tailored to genomic data? NIST is working to find the answers.

$Micrograph shows fractures appearing at junction of enamel and dentin.$

Teeth: From Materials Science to Dentistry and Evolutionary Biology

January 31, 2022

Brian Lawn

As a happily retired materials scientist from NIST, I have continued a long-standing interest in how materials deform and fracture under high stress. My research began in the 1960s with fundamental investigations into the way intrinsically brittle solids can sustain highly concentrated stresses

Clear glass "boxes" with tubes coming in and out

That’s a Wrap: Selects From the NIST Invent Calendar

January 3, 2022