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Taking Measure

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Displaying 126 - 150 of 398
A researcher peers into a box of scientific equipment near an opening in the wall showing the view down the mountain.

Putting Einstein to the Test With the World’s Most Accurate Clocks

February 2, 2026
Gabriel Popkin
… on top of a mountain. We know this thanks to a remarkable timekeeping technology invented at NIST: the atomic clock . During the past … be even slightly off, these discrepancies could reveal important new information about the universe. Hafele and Keating booked plane tickets … further confirmed time dilation to greater precision. And so did a technology you probably use every day. GPS satellites — the ones that …
Ram Sriram poses smiling for a head shot outdoors on the NIST campus.

AI in the Doctor’s Office: How Standards Can Support Trustworthiness

December 4, 2025
Ram D. Sriram
… is reliability, particularly of the datasets AI tools rely on for information. Just as a hacker can inject a virus into a computer … at NIST and NIH have made significant contributions to this technology. Their work has led to an FDA-approved treatment for … already shown success in patients. It's reassuring to know that this technology is available should I need it to protect my vision in the …
On a rooftop overlooking a waterfront town, an equipment box is attached to a pole anchored with concrete blocks.

Data in Demand: How the U.S. Navy’s Bandwidth Can Boost Your Data Speed

January 20, 2023
Melissa Midzor
… memes.  The spectrum has been divided up over the decades. As our technology expanded, telecommunications companies, governments and … National Science Foundation, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.  CBRS needs measurement, and we know how to … the CBRS are even being updated as we take measurements because the information changes so quickly.  In October 2022, we deployed our first …
Percival Lowell with his radio receiver and amplifier set

NIST’s Role in the Early Decades of Radio (1911-1933)

February 13, 2020
Alex Boss
… (NBS), the agency that became the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This came about when the second International … the frequency that the Department of Commerce used to send weather information to planes and ships, which sometimes caused interference for … frequency the radio beacon operated on, which gave altitude and other information. Dunmore created a prototype, but Harry Diamond, a radio …
collage of blueprints for buildings and an airplane, a pile of rubble, a live fire test of a simulated office, and the word Reconstruction

Reconstructing the Fires That Brought Down WTC 1, 2 and 7

August 4, 2021
Richard G. Gann
… day: who planned the attack, how the pilots were trained, and some information about the World Trade Center itself, but little about how … Fire Research Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The subject was the possibility of the creation of an … this. There were such heavy questions: How were we going to get the information needed to model the fires with a high degree of confidence? …
A researcher works at a computer with the screen showing a black scaffold structure on a white background.

Taking Measure Celebrates 10 Years of Science and Stories

January 7, 2026
Megan King
… we do. I hope we can answer some of your questions about science and technology, and about why we do this work. This blog will give you a … science.”   5 Concepts Can Help You Understand Quantum Mechanics and Technology — Without Math! Classical physics governs the world we see … Information technology …
a collage showing images of a crowd of people, an elevator, the word evacuation, a stairwell with the stairs marked as 1.5 meters wide, an icon of a telephone with the numbers 911, and a camera

Inside the Towers on 9/11: My Story of Investigating the WTC Evacuation

August 11, 2021
Jason Averill
… Maryland, campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the trio of outside experts ( Dennis Mileti , Guylene … of experts mentioned previously), we quickly gathered any existing information, including a database of over 700 evacuation accounts in the … 200 open-ended face-to-face interviews to allow novel or unexpected information to emerge; and six focus groups of people with shared …
NIST Chief Metrologist Jim Olthoff stands in front of equipment in a lab.

Keepers of the Right Answer: Why Measurements at NIST Are Important for the Nation and the World

September 5, 2024
James K. Olthoff
… things better.   Why such dedication? Well, everything in science and technology is based on measurement. In science, the ability to measure … weekend weather will be like.    Additionally, the more science and technology advance, the trickier the measurements become.  For example, … which is about the thickness of a dime.    As semiconductor technology has advanced, we now have to measure computer chips at the …
a collage including images of a radio tower, a handheld radio, a fire engine, and the word Connection

How 9/11 Changed Me and First Responder Communications

August 11, 2021
Dereck Orr
… is how I found myself at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) beginning in 2002. With the federal government’s rapid … with its long and distinguished history in advancing standards and technology, would be a critical player in addressing this important … and engineers from NIST and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication …
man in a white lab coat and safety goggles loads a metal oxide framework material into a testing machine

Moving Forward While Giving Back: Continuing the Cycle of Mentorship

February 25, 2019
Christopher Sims
… Program aims to increase diversity among future leaders in science, technology, engineering and related fields by encouraging more … agency I had never heard of: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Just like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), … was invited to visit NIST at the request of then-Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory Director Dr. Willie E. May (who would later become …
A large gathering of women on a staircase

The Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics: Leveling the Playing Field

March 27, 2020
Amber McCreary
… Inclusivity is a core value at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and we strive to make it a welcoming place for all. … I will always advocate for empowering women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), the data tells us that the … with NIST Director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Walter Copan introducing the students to NIST and sharing …
a graphic with a large 5 surrounded by objects from the post including mysterious museum objects, a blackboard with equations on it, a cellphone, and three vials. Additional text above the 5 reads "2019 Taking Measure."

Top 5 NIST Blog Posts of 2019

November 25, 2019
Mark Esser
… of people tuned into the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Taking Measure blog to get their metrological fix, and … Theofanos Privacy is important, especially when it comes to medical information. In this blog post, NIST’s Mary Theofanos puts the … in “privacy.” Theofanos explains that, while some of the information gathered during a 911 call may be useful for making future …
George Orji using a pair of tweezers to make an adjustment to an instrument.

What To Do When Measurement Methods Produce Different Answers

April 1, 2019
George Orji
… are used, either as a cross-check or because they provide additional information (including prettier data or pictures), the level of work … that are different. Some techniques may not even “sense” the same information as the others. For us to understand the results, they would … each technique (such as those shown in the figure) would provide information only on those parameters it is best capable of measuring. …
Under the orange lights of a clean room, Katarina Cicak, wearing a coverall and safety glasses, displays tiny chips in a plastic box.

From Escaping a War to Becoming a Mom of 3 at Once, Science Has Always Been There for Me

June 14, 2023
Katarina Cicak
… field was in what I call the “diaper days” of quantum computing; the technology was about as mature as a toddler. If you compare it to the … is one of the most tested and proven theories out there. But quantum information is so fragile that it takes a lot of effort to manipulate or … do all sorts of amazing things needed as precursors to scale up the technology, such as: building devices that exhibit quantum behavior that …
Illustration has "TLP" on a computer screen linked to a robot arm, a human brain, gears and other symbols.

Teaching Computers to Read ‘Industry Lingo’ — Technical vs. Natural Language Processing

October 21, 2022
Michael Sharp
… translating context and intent with comparatively little additional information. Computers, however, are not. In the example above, words … area of study that takes communications by humans and transforms that information into something more suitable for computer use and analysis. … the need to both process high volumes of text, and translate information between individuals in areas where NLP struggles to perform, …
concept illustrating the virtuous cycle of how better devices lead to better measurements which lead to better devices

The Virtuous Cycle of Making and Measuring Nanostructures

October 5, 2020
Samuel Stavis
… with remarkable prescience, making, measuring and using new technology at the nanometer scale. The exact effect that his predictions … I learned that researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were also interested in new devices and good … much of the nanometer scale, discovering important science and technology. And there is still plenty of room down here. …
Clear glass "boxes" with tubes coming in and out

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

January 3, 2022
Riley Wilson
… Today’s chip-scale invention combines microfluidics and optical technology to make accurate measurements of liquid flows, which can be … system. Learn more about NIST’s work in microfluidics and chip-scale technology . If this selection of patents piques your interest, be sure … and manages licenses for inventions available from NIST. For further information, please contact our staff. …
A colorful illustration of showing human-like figures with the letters A, G, T, and C.



National DNA Day and the Birth of Investigative Genetic Genealogy

April 24, 2019
John Butler
… forensic DNA and the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in strengthening forensic science at a special event honoring … progress to more serious crimes that they can be connected to using information from their initial entry. NDIS contains more than 17 million … to provide a tighter fishing net. Biogeographical ancestry and information, such as eye color, can be helpful here. These types of …
three figures survey reference data on their computer screen while looking on at a turbine

50 Years of the ‘Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data’: A Q&A With Editors Allan Harvey and Don Burgess

June 9, 2021
… way, reference data provides important foundations to science and technology. This year marks the 50th volume of the Journal of Physical … of Standard Reference Data at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for many years. Don volunteered upon learning about … of our journal’s articles as the source for some of their tabulated information. We think of ourselves as a source for people who are using …
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