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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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NIST Expertise Helps Protect Historical Documents at the National Museum of African American History and Culture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

Thanks, Bob: Expanding the Repertoire of NIST’s World-Class Coordinate Measuring Machines

January 30, 2018

The National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) is home to one of the most sensitive machines in the world for measuring objects’ dimensions...

NIST’s Superconducting Synapse May Be Missing Piece for ‘Artificial Brains’

January 26, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a superconducting switch that “learns” like a biological system and could...

CNST Releases Fall Winter 2017 Edition of the CNST News

January 18, 2018

The NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) is pleased to announce the release of the Fall/Winter 2017 edition of the CNST News. This quarterly...

Illustration of flat memristor device resting on titanium dioxide surface, with yellow electron beam impinging on memristor and ejecting electrons (balls of different colors).

Thanks for the Memory: NIST Takes a Deep Look at Memristors

January 18, 2018

In the race to build a computer that mimics the massive computational power of the human brain, researchers are increasingly turning to memristors, which can...

A Stopwatch for Nanofluids: NIST Files Provisional Patent Application for Measuring Nanoliter Flow Rates

January 17, 2018

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has filed a provisional patent application for a microflow measurement system, about the size of a...

Laboratory Management Web Application Goes Nationwide

January 8, 2018

Making reservations, accessing tools, and maintaining equipment at the CNST’s NanoFab got a lot easier five years ago when the CNST developed a customized...

Man in striped shirt wearing laser safety glasses working with laser table in laboratory.

‘Quantum Radio’ May Aid Communications and Mapping Indoors, Underground and Underwater

January 2, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated that quantum physics might enable communications and mapping in...

sphere-shaped particles of different sizes on a nanometer-scale staircase with 7 steps

Atomic Blasting Creates New Devices to Measure Nanoparticles

December 14, 2017

Like sandblasting at the nanometer scale, focused beams of ions ablate hard materials to form intricate three-dimensional patterns. The beams can create tiny...

Illustration showing lines of electrical force around an opening to a cell.

Scientists Channel Graphene to Understand Filtration and Ion Transport into Cells

December 8, 2017

Tiny pores at a cell’s entryway act as miniature bouncers, letting in some electrically charged atoms—ions—but blocking others. Operating as exquisitely...

NIST’s NeXT Trick Will Fill Your Eyes With That Double Vision

November 30, 2017

Superman’s X-ray vision has nothing on Jake LaManna’s. For the past couple of years, LaManna, an engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology...

Clear spheres are shown over top of pink concentric rings

Quantum Simulators Wield Control Over More Than 50 Qubits

November 29, 2017

COLLEGE PARK, Md.—Two independent teams of scientists, including one from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI, University of Maryland/NIST), have used more than 50...

NIST Finds Many Protective Glasses Do Not Meet Specs for Shielding Light from Ultrafast Lasers

November 28, 2017

High-power, ultrafast pulsed lasers increasingly supply light for biomedical applications and imaging, materials processing, industrial micromachining and more...

Two rectangular boxes with oblong shapes in the center of each in red, green and fuscia

Microwave-Based Test Method Can Help Keep 3-D Chip Designers’ Eyes Open

November 28, 2017

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a new approach to testing multilayered, three-dimensional computer chips...

How Disposable Diapers Can Improve Measurements of Tumor Growth

November 20, 2017

Catching cancer early can make all the difference for successful treatment. A common screening practice measures tumor growth with X-ray computed tomography (CT...

Man with gray hair standing beside computer with digital clock display

NIST’s Next-Generation Atomic Clocks May Support Official Timekeeping

November 16, 2017

For more than a decade, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been unveiling experimental next-generation atomic clocks. These clocks...

NIST Scientists Discover How to Switch Liver Cancer Cell Growth from 2-D to 3-D Structures

November 15, 2017

Paving the way for testing experimental drugs in more realistic environments, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have...

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Advanced communications
-Open Radio Access Network (Open-RAN)
-Quantum communications
-Spectrum sharing
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Artificial intelligence
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Bioscience
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-Biomanufacturing
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-Biometrology
-Biosecurity
--Biosurveillance
--Genomic cybersecurity
--Nucleic acid sequence screening
-Cell measurements
-Engineering / synthetic biology
--Biofabrication
--Cell-free systems
--Genome engineering
--Protein engineering
-Gene delivery systems
-Genome editing
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-Glycomics
-Metabolomics
-Microbial measurements
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Buildings and Construction
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Chemistry
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Electronics
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Forensic Science
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Information technology
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-Supply chain
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Materials
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--Composition and structure
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Mathematics and statistics
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Metrology
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Nanotechnology
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