Search Taking Measure

Displaying 226 - 250 of 360

George Caceres wears safety glasses and a lab coat as he looks at a plastic test tube he is holding.

Measuring Microplastics: To Solve the Problem, We Have to Understand and Measure It

March 18, 2024

My friends sometimes jokingly ask me, “How many microplastics do you think I consumed this week?” Unfortunately, the answer is not zero.

Illustration shows a lottery ball machine: a clear plastic sphere on a stand, half-filled with colorful numbered balls.

Pirouetting Molecules Can Help Us Learn About the History of the Universe

November 22, 2024

Dietrich Leibfried

… of different rotational states. I’ll Be Watching You To pick up information on the molecule’s rotational state, our team had to come up … ion appearing dark or bright is the “Morse code” with which it relays information about the molecule to us, human observers. For these … and Tara Fortier. Philipp Plessow from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany provided invaluable help in understanding the …

artists rendition of human embryonic stem cells

Experts Next Door: How a Public-Private Partnership Benefits the Regenerative Medicine Community

September 21, 2020

Catherine (Katie) Zander

… we share office space on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A few months ago, I … cause a clinic to need multiple printers and labels that would all put information in different places and require the technician to receive …

Grace Waters poses smiling in the lab, leaning against a desk with a computer monitor showing data and graphs.

A Summer of Science: NIST Interns’ Stories of Their Time in the Lab

July 20, 2023

… for summer 2024 and sign up for our email list ! Making Disinfecting Technology Safe for People, Not Germs Grace Waters School: Virginia … I made origami sculptures in school all the time. But I also love technology and am majoring in computer science. So robotics — the … takes me after graduation. … Electronics … Semiconductors … Health … Information technology … Usability and human factors … Virtual / …

Photo of man in white space suite on surface of moon at night.

Mooning Over Measurement

January 31, 2017

Ann Chiaramonti Debay

… and other moons in our solar system, the reflected light can provide information about what the surface is made of and its texture. Using … tomography (XRCT), which allows him to get detailed 3-D shape and size information on a large number of particles at the same time, in size … as Ed does with his XRCT data, I can still provide a lot of useful information in the study. For example, we can tell if the particles …

graphic illustrating different aspects of critical infrastructure, including power transmission, nuclear plants, and factories

A Framework for Protecting Our Critical Infrastructure

October 30, 2017

Matt Barrett

… are we doing an update? Well, to keep pace with trends in threats and technology, we believe the Framework must be a living document. NIST … users. NIST gathers that input from its stakeholders via request-for-information (RFI) responses, as well as conversations at meetings and … or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. … Information technology … Cybersecurity … Risk management … Securing …

A Lego structure wired to various electronic readout devices stands on a wooden counter surrounded by other scientific equipment. A sign on the concrete wall behind reads "No Turkeys Allowed."

How Lego Bricks Shaped My Career at NIST

September 1, 2022

Leon Chao

… and develop a metrology-grade instrument that would help get this technology into the hands of calibration labs all around the country? … day. Along the way we’ve become buddies with the folks in the NIST Technology Partnerships Office, who have been a great help in … modernize the mass and torque metrology landscape using Kibble balance technology is arduous but nonetheless worth adventuring down. As I sit …

Infusion pump in foreground of hospital room with patient lying in bed

SoS: Securing Wireless Infusion Pumps in a System of Systems

October 27, 2016

Gavin O'Brien

… possible security risks that could result in loss of protected health information. We have also identified some key benefits associated with … trade-off or hidden cost. It’s unfortunate that people would exploit a technology to do harm that was intended to do good. Although I wish we … work my colleagues and I do could potentially save lives. … Health … Information technology … Cyber-physical systems … Cybersecurity … …

Two people wearing coveralls in a "clean room" lab look up at a disk-shaped object that one of them is holding.

Agents of Contrast, Software Runaway Hit, Our Early Universe: A Sample of Stories on NIST Social Media

August 16, 2023

Riley Wilson

… NIST on social media: Facebook National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership Twitter @NIST … @MFGUSA @NISTPublicSafeT LinkedIn National Institute of Standards and Technology National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Organization … Reddit National Institute of Standards and Technology … Health … Information technology … Nanotechnology … Physics … Agents of Contrast, …

a person dispensing hand sanitizer into their hand

NIST Lends a Hand to Hand-Sanitizer Manufacturers

March 12, 2021

William A. MacCrehan

… the planet, our organization, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), became concerned with the COVID-19 outbreak in March … find this internal NIST analytical “competition” interesting, but the information gathered about the techniques and measurements might be of …

a photo of two bottles about the size of spice bottles. On one is written 4351 Human lung for 239+240 Pu measurements, and on the other is written 4352 Human liver for 239+240 Pu measurements

Making Radioactive Lung and Liver Samples for Better Human Health

October 25, 2019

Kenneth G.W. Inn

… Bureau of Standards (NBS, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST). The job they hired me to do was to develop and … people who had signed releases stating that their organs and exposure information could be used for research after their deaths. Both were …

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.

Illustration shows the word "SKOR" with a horned helmet, a stick and pastures with sheep.

From the Noggin to the Butt: Quirky Measurement Units Throughout Human History

February 28, 2022

Ben P. Stein

… measurement units here at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), you'll typically hear us rattling off the official … age. In computing, engineers came up with the nibble (four bits of information) and the crumb (two bits), building upon the wordplay that …

Left: Machine that looks like an old fashioned typewriter in a box. Right: picture of Alan Turing along with a bio. Both are from a museum exhibit.

Alan Turing’s Everlasting Contributions to Computing, AI and Cryptography

June 21, 2022

René Peralta

… the world. We could not do this work without complexity theory. Technology sometimes throws us a curve, such as the discovery that if a … celebrate how Turing provided the keys to much of today’s computing technology and even gave us hints on how to solve looming technological … First Computer Programmer Who Predicted Artificial Intelligence … Information technology … Cybersecurity … Cryptography … Mathematics and …

Young man with wild blonde hair and reddish beard smiling beside an AC susceptometer that he helped build

SURFing from Susceptometers to Skyrmions: The Making of a Neutron MANiAC

July 20, 2018

Paul Neves

… school when I first came to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). That day, my … in copper selenate are topologically protected, which means that any information stored in them would be difficult to lose accidentally. I …

showing representations of various microorganisms

Say Hello to Our Little Friends: Toward Microbial BiotheraPOOtics and Diagnostics

May 13, 2016

Scott Jackson

… and different from strains implicated in previous outbreaks. That information helped public health investigators identify outbreak … bacterium. Over the past decade, however, advances in DNA sequencing technology have made genome sequencing faster and less expensive. …

NIST researcher Mike Moldover with a basketball-sized metal sphere used to measure the speed of sound in a gas

Proving Our Mettle: NIST and the Boltzmann Constant Competition

December 20, 2017

Michael Moldover

How tall are you? How old? How much do you weigh? Do you care? Is it important to you that the measurements for height, age and weight are accurate? What about the measurement of the gasoline that you pump into your tank? Is it important that the 12 gallons you pay for are truly 12 gallons

Screenshot says "AMOS Gateway: A Portal for Research and Education in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Science" over colorful circular design.

AMO for All: How Online Portals Are Democratizing the Field of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

October 24, 2022

Barry Schneider

… these excitations in different atoms and molecules, we can use this information in all kinds of applications. Some are in fundamental … learning and deep learning are now being used to effectively extract information from existing data and to make predictions on the outcome … longer impossible or too costly could be on the horizon. … Information technology … Mathematics and statistics … Physics … Atomic / molecular …

NIST SRM 2387, Peanut Butter, with white bread

Going Nuts over NIST’s Standard Reference Peanut Butter

January 25, 2016

Mark Esser

… and they can then accurately label their products with nutritional information and consumers can know that they are getting a balanced …

Got Evidence? How to Improve Forensic Science

February 18, 2016

John Butler

… will support improvements in forensic science and carry it forward as technology changes. The OSAC develops standards and guidelines, and the …

‘W’eird Signals: Listening in on the Eclipse

August 15, 2017

Jill Nelson

… a low-frequency station, operated by NIST, that provides precise time information to radio-controlled clocks across North America. The WWVB … nearly anywhere in the continental U.S., and because we know the information it will be transmitting, it is the ideal thing to measure …

Man holding handheld console and yellow robot arm

Helping Robots Be Less Robotic

November 16, 2016

Craig Schlenoff

… how much objects weigh, where they are, etc. We’re able to gather information and use reason to interpret it, e.g., that an object is too … to develop a plan, often on the fly, with respect to how we can use information to accomplish some goal, e.g., we pick the part up, turn it …

smoke billows from the open doorway of a burning test storage room

Rescuing Our History from the Ashes

November 1, 2018

Jason Stoughton

… In a unique collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the PRICE team along with a busload of other Smithsonian … filled with charred “relics,” they’re taking with them a wealth of information and hands-on experience. “The disaster in Brazil [at the … … Fire dynamics and science … Fire modeling … Materials flammability … Information technology … Virtual / augmented reality … Public safety … …

Aly Artusio-Glimpse smiles and holds up a tiny glass square.

Benchy the Boat, Irradiated Mangoes, Quantum Window: A Sample of Stories on NIST Social Media

April 20, 2023

Riley Wilson

… NIST on social media: Facebook National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership Twitter @NIST … @MFGUSA @NISTPublicSafeT LinkedIn National Institute of Standards and Technology National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Organization of Scientific Area Committees Communications Technology Laboratory Manufacturing USA group Manufacturing Extension …

A researcher in a lab coat and safety glasses poses next to a large piece of lab equipment.

The Insulation That Melts in Your Walls — and Could Reduce Your Energy Costs

January 30, 2025

Brian Gutierrez

… they haven't been widely adopted. One major barrier is the gap in information about how well the materials perform and how to best use …