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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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NIST Puts the Optical Microscope Under the Microscope to Achieve Atomic Accuracy

May 22, 2018

Over the last two decades, scientists have discovered that the optical microscope can be used to detect, track and image objects much smaller than their

CNST Releases Spring 2018 Edition of the CNST News

May 22, 2018

The NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) is pleased to announce the release of the Spring 2018 edition of the CNST News. This quarterly

Neutrons by the Numbers

May 21, 2018

After years of research, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and demonstrated a way to count the absolute

illustration. gray disk. green rods come up from the disk.

Hanging by a Nanowhisker

May 9, 2018

If Alexander Yulaev and his colleagues had their druthers, they’d do away with whiskers altogether. These scientists don’t have anything against facial hair

Man standing working on a silicon carbide device

NIST Electronics Engineer Named Service to America Medal Finalist

May 7, 2018

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher Allen R. Hefner, Jr., has been named a finalist for the 2018 Samuel J. Heyman Service to

Taking The Heat: New High for NIST’s ‘Light Force’ Laser Power Meter

May 1, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been developing a novel way of measuring laser power. Their device, called the

The Secret Lives of Roots: Watching Crops Grow Beneath the Surface with Portable MRI

May 1, 2018

Nobody really knows what plant roots are doing when they’re at home. Digging up a plant exposes the roots, but destroys the soil’s natural fabric. Information

Laboratory with computer screens mounted on the wall, and a table with instruments

NIST Team Shows Tiny Frequency Combs Are Reliable Measurement Tools

April 25, 2018

In an advance that could shrink many measurement technologies, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and partners have

Desktop Cosmology: A Model of the Expanding Universe

April 23, 2018

When the universe was very young – about a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang – it underwent a sudden explosive expansion

Alan Band working to install Yagi antenna on roof of AML Bldg.

Obituary: CNST Remembers Alan Band

April 18, 2018

Alan Band, an electrical engineer at NIST for more than 25 years who won the Institute’s Colleagues’ Choice award and was celebrated for his ability to mentor

Worth the Weight: New International Guidelines Published for Manufacturing Load Cells

April 16, 2018

At the heart of every electronic weighing instrument is a device called a load cell, which takes a mechanical force and turns it into an electronic signal

Illustration of sunlight shining on solar panel covered with nanometer-scale beads.

Psst! A Whispering Gallery for Light Boosts Solar Cells

April 13, 2018

Trapping light with an optical version of a whispering gallery, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a

Multicolor illustration featuring various patterns of the numerals 1 and 0

NIST’s New Quantum Method Generates Really Random Numbers

April 11, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method for generating numbers guaranteed to be random by quantum

Square silver device with black-lined window connected to a clear tube on the left, a copper fringe down the middle, and a penny on the right

Mini Toolkit for Measurements: New NIST Chip Hints at Quantum Sensors of the Future

April 10, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a chip on which laser light interacts with a tiny cloud of atoms to serve

Blazing a Path for Buried Bits in Quantum Chips

April 10, 2018

NIST researchers have pioneered a process that drastically simplifies fabrication of the kind of nanoscale microchip features that may soon form the basis of a

Illustration of a plasmomechanical oscillator

Doing the Nano-Shimmy

April 9, 2018

Imagine a single particle, only one-tenth the diameter of a bacterium, whose miniscule jiggles induce sustained vibrations in an entire mechanical device some

New NIST Service: Extending Traceable Measurements Inside the Human Body

March 23, 2018

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is now providing a new measurement service that can improve the quality of magnetic resonance imaging

Comparison of Future Realizations of the Kilogram - Final Report

March 15, 2018

The Pilot Study — read 2016 article details — was completed in late 2016 and the Final Report was published on the BIPM website in June of 2017. The main

Movable Silicon ‘Lenses’ Enable Neutrons to See New Range of Details Inside Objects

March 12, 2018

You can’t see well without lenses that can focus, whether those lenses are in your eye or the microscope you peer through. An innovative new way to focus beams

Four images composed of diffuse red, white and blue patterns.

JILA Team Invents New Way to ‘See’ the Quantum World

March 5, 2018

JILA scientists have invented a new imaging technique that produces rapid, precise measurements of quantum behavior in an atomic clock in the form of near

Making Smokestack Emissions Tests Better, Faster, Cheaper

February 27, 2018

Smokestacks at coal-fired power plants have sensors that continuously monitor their emissions by measuring the flow of gases such as carbon dioxide, mercury

NIST Sharpens the 'Charpy' Test to Make a More Precise Impact on Industrial Materials

February 26, 2018

A decade before an iceberg shattered the hull plates of the Titanic and half a century before a plague of brittle fractures started sinking Liberty ships during

Asia Robertson of NIST’s Fabrication Technology Office makes final adjustments on an encasement.

NIST Expertise Helps Protect Historical Documents at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

February 21, 2018

This month, two seminal documents in American history—the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution— went on display at the

New Standard Aims to Ensure Accurate Fares in Both Ride-Hailing Technology and Traditional Taxi Services

February 15, 2018

To calculate a fare, ride-hailing apps rely on mobile devices for determining the vehicle’s movements and travel time, and to access the company’s proprietary

Graphic explaining the CMC method for comparing ballistic surfaces

How Good a Match is It? Putting Statistics into Forensic Firearms Identification

February 8, 2018

On February 14, 1929, gunmen working for Al Capone disguised themselves as police officers, entered the warehouse of a competing gang, and shot seven of their

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