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Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

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Men working at construction site with wood planks on ground and gray house dangling in air by crane

Building Codes, Planning Key to Community Resilience

September 21, 2016

Dominic Sims

“Buildings built to the most modern building codes were the safest places to be during Hurricane Sandy.” Having spent most of my life in code enforcement, I’ve known this to be fact and have seen the evidence with my own eyes. But hearing New York City Chief Resilience Officer Daniel Zarrilli say it

two photos of Matt Staymates facing each other in front of a schlieren camera system. On the left, Matt is not wearing a mask, on the right he is. In both photos he is coughing. In the unmasked photo, you can see a big plume of air exiting forward like a jet from his mouth. In the masked photo, the air plume hangs around his face and does not go very far.

My Stay-at-Home Lab Shows How Face Coverings Can Slow the Spread of Disease

June 9, 2020

Matthew E. Staymates

… and mechanical engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I’ve devoted much of my career to helping others see …

Floodwaters rise to the doorways of a row of historic brick buildings, one with a sign saying "Nashville."

Disaster Preparedness: How Measurement Science Can Help Your Community

January 12, 2026

Christina Gore

… So, our goal is to empower these busy people with the tools and information they need to wisely spend their limited budgets. Community … closer geographically to larger metropolitan areas. That’s useful information, even if it didn’t help the counties that lost jobs and …

three weapons on a blue checked background

Women’s Body Armor: Staying Ahead of the Curves

August 1, 2016

Jennifer Huergo

… (As any woman who has shopped for a bra knows.) Forster found lots of information on clothing design, but nothing that helped her create a … she found a study of chest circumference, but it didn’t offer any information on how much of that circumference was on the front of the …

purple-gloved researcher holding three vials up to the camera

Blood, Sweat and Genomes: A Quest to Advance Measurement Science in Non-Model Organisms

January 29, 2019

Ben Neely

… Biologists have for years been using insights from nature to advance technology, e.g., gecko feet and adhesives. Studying naturally occurring … there, it moves to the team at the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Reference Sequence Database (RefSeq) , who annotates the …

Clothes rack. Sign in middle. Left pointing arrow says Donate with clothes hanging. Right facing arrow says "keep" pointing to other clothes.

Your Old Clothes Can Come Full Circle With Textile Recycling

May 2, 2022

Kelsea Schumacher

… needs, including collaboration, system harmonization, and data and information sharing. Transitioning to a circular economy requires … classifications, industry tools and standards. Further, data and information gaps currently inhibit many efforts to reduce the industry’s …

A researcher wearing safety glasses reaches into a box of circuitry and other equipment, which emits a green glow.

Think You Know What a Second Is? It Will Likely Change in the Next Decade.

October 16, 2023

Tara Fortier

… a future redefinition of the second might impact our lives and modern technology. You may have learned to count “one, 1,000” or “two, … be fundamental research and science. It is a rare occurrence that technology takes a step forward and someone doesn’t find some way to …

NIST Physicist’s Once Obscure Work Is Now Helping Researchers Learn About the Origins of the Universe

April 17, 2024

Ron Cowen

… the electric field of the radiation. Those wiggles encode a wealth of information about the universe an instant after the Big Bang and could …

Top NIST Images of 2018

February 6, 2019

Robin Materese

… Math as art? Now, this is a TRUE example of STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics)! Created by NIST mathematician …

NIST researcher Justyna Zwolak reads a book about Ada Lovelace to her young daughter

Ada Lovelace: The World’s First Computer Programmer Who Predicted Artificial Intelligence

March 14, 2023

Justyna Zwolak

… to perform any abstract operation is the defining phenomenon of our technology. However, not everyone knows that this idea of universal … Information technology …

A white telescope dish is surrounded by wooded mountains in autumn colors.

In Case You Missed It From NIST: 2021 Edition

December 8, 2021

… related research, as well as the wide range of other science and technology topics NIST is known for. We have pulled together a …

Man wearing white gloves holding a rectangular brass bar out in front of him.

The Vara: A Standard of Length With a Not-So-Standard History

October 7, 2019

Marcos A. Reyes-Martinez

… Hispanic Heritage Month at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In my search for ideas, I approached the NIST Museum …

How NIST Helped Hero Pilot Jimmy Doolittle Fly

August 10, 2020

Laura Ost

… Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), helped the young lieutenant achieve another feat of …

A person wearing a blue medical glove holds up an X-ray film of a bone joint.

Checkup Time! How Measurement Science Keeps You Healthy

January 27, 2026

Riley Wilson

From blood transfusions to broken bones, accurate measurements are a vital part of health care.

Photo of scientists checking vaccine temperatures.

Sticking Point: Temperature Control Vital to Vaccine Viability

January 21, 2016

Michal Chojnacky

… have expressed frustration at the lack of consistent guidance and information for safely managing their vaccine supplies. Our group is …

An antique clock showing a few minutes before 12 is topped with a party hat, and colorful streamers hang in the background.

Auld Lang ‘Time’: One of the Country’s Timekeepers Makes Sure We Ring in The New Year at Just the Right Second

November 27, 2023

Andrew Novick

… into most computer operating systems. Your computer accesses this information automatically, so you’ve probably used this service without … a family photo album or a collection of letters presents interesting information about total strangers. I once even found a stack of letters …

Printing with Concrete: How I Spent My Summer Vacation

August 15, 2017

Austin Thomas

… in preparing the cement and labeling every specimen with as much information as possible. Cement paste formulations are very sensitive to … me to apply my existing knowledge of 3-D printing and manufacturing technology while gaining knowledge in materials characterization and …

Antonio Possolo stands next to a museum display of a Kibble balance, a complex scientific device.

Listening to the Data: How a NIST Tool Helps Labs Worldwide Harmonize Measurements

March 21, 2024

Antonio Possolo

… the data to reveal how it should be analyzed. Data conveys relevant information about nature and about industrial, technological and …

Cartoon snow globe features a tape measure shaped like Santa's sleigh.

Count on NIST to Provide Well-Measured Holiday Cheer

December 15, 2025

Robin Materese

… of the actual lights used on the tree to try and get more information about the lumens for the specific lights used. Unfortunately, the manufacturer was not able to share that information, and Rockefeller Center did not respond. That left us having …

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

… feed it into an artificial intelligence system. The AI analyzes the information, learns about it and predicts which formulation structure … this in other facilities like ours around the country. As this technology continues to evolve, we can look forward to more effective …

A woman in a lab coat (left) watches as a man in a lab coat (right) gestures at a small device he is holding in his hand.

Breathing Easier: Measuring Formaldehyde in Wood Construction Products

October 31, 2019

Dustin Poppendieck

… years later as a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Together with my colleague Jennifer Woertz, I …

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

… competing with smartphones and laptops for kids’ attention. Today’s technology makes it hard to teach critical thinking, but if we’re going …

small grains of a reference material disappearing or floating away. two lasers, red and blue, which represent the two different colored lasers used by the instrument. Also visible are linear molecules of carbon dioxide (collections of three balls), CO2.

Fundamental Constants Are the Future of Measurement. Can They Replace Artifacts for Measuring Isotopes?

May 10, 2021

Adam J. Fleisher

… artefacts , ” Nobel laureate and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) fellow William D. Phillips details how scientists came …

wood pendulum clock hung on a wood paneled wall

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 3

April 9, 2021

Judah Levine

… One of the early tasks of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, which was known as the National Bureau of Standards …

A ‘Forever’ Stamp and a Discovery That Changed Physics Forever

February 16, 2021

Katie Rapp

… have come very close to seeing a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher on a U.S. postage stamp. Over the course of …

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