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Physical Measurement Laboratory

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Slip Sliding Our Way: At the Nanoscale, Graphite Can Turn Friction Upside Down

October 16, 2012

If you ease up on a pencil, does it slide more easily? Sure. But maybe not if the tip is sharpened down to nanoscale dimensions. A team of researchers at the...

New Measurement Technique to Fill Critical Need for Fiber Optic Cable Industry

October 15, 2012

In consumer-driven industries, it is critically important to provide customers what they expect when they make their purchases. When you pay for a gallon of gas...

David Wineland leans over a table of lasers to adjust a laser beam

NIST's David J. Wineland Wins 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics

October 9, 2012

David J. Wineland, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in...

Physicist David J. Wineland of NIST Boulder Laboratories in Colorado

Congratulations to David Wineland! 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics

October 9, 2012

We are thrilled at the news that NIST's David Wineland has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Professor Serge Haroche of the Collège de...

NIST's Webcast News Briefing on David Wineland's Nobel Prize in Physics

October 9, 2012

NIST's David Wineland has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Professor Serge Haroche of the Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure...

False-color SEMs of cross-sectioned hematite films.

Researchers Determine Critical Factors for Improving Performance of a Solar Fuel Catalyst

October 3, 2012

Hydrogen gas that is created using solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen has the potential to be a cost-effective fuel source if the efficiency...

Schematic of an artificial membrane, across which a voltage forces an ionized fluid through the nanopore.

NIST, Columbia Engineering Collaborate on Inexpensive DNA Sequencing Method

October 2, 2012

Rapid, accurate genetic sequencing soon may be within reach of every doctor's office if recent research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology...

Schematic diagram of loophole-free Bell test

Truly Random Numbers — But Not by Chance

October 1, 2012

Life can seem haphazard and chaotic, but true randomness is fundamentally mysterious, elusive, and remarkably difficult to observe. If it can be realized and...

Shaking Up Biomolecules with Light

September 28, 2012

In living organisms, biomolecules such as proteins are constantly in complex motion, bending and flexing in different ways at different points. Each molecule...

Near-Field Scanning Microwave Microscope: Big at the Nanoscale

September 28, 2012

NIST's ability to determine the composition and physics of nanoscale materials and devices is about to improve dramatically with the arrival of a new near-field...

PML Plays a Central Role in Standards Agreement by 22 Federal Agencies

September 27, 2012

PML researchers played a central role in the establishment of new testing and evaluation (T&E) standards for radiation and nuclear detectors about to be adopted...

NIST Handbook 156 - 2012 Edition

September 26, 2012

NIST Handbook 156 - Program Handbook for Engine Fuels, Petroleum and Lubricant Laboratories Introduction This handbook provides guidance on how to establish a...

False-color scanning electron micrograph of a nanophotonic motion sensor.

A Fast and Sensitive Nanophotonic Motion Sensor Developed for Silicon Microdevices

September 19, 2012

Using a microscopic optical sensor that can be batch-fabricated on a silicon chip at low cost, Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and...

Jacob Taylor, NIST Physicist, Receives Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for Public Service

September 14, 2012

On September 13, 2012, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicist Jacob Taylor received a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal...

Researchers Introduce New Method for Imaging Defects in Magnetic Nanodevices

September 12, 2012

A team of researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and the University of Maryland...

The World's Most Stable Laser

September 10, 2012

The world's most stable laser – with frequency variation of no more than 2 parts in 10,000 trillion – has been developed and tested by an international...

NIST 'Hybrid Metrology' Method Could Improve Computer Chips

September 5, 2012

A refined method developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for measuring nanometer-sized objects may help computer manufacturers...

SEM image of the waveguide cross-section of the low-noise frequency converter

CNST Researchers Demonstrate Low-Noise, Chip-Based Optical Wavelength Converter

September 5, 2012

Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology have demonstrated a low-noise device for changing the wavelength of light using...

Simulating the Sun for Photovoltaic Research

August 29, 2012

PML researchers have devised a novel source of portable sunlight that may fill an urgent need in renewable energy research – namely, light sources that generate...

PML Goes to Mars: Far-Out Thermal Calibration

August 29, 2012

Sometimes the chain of measurement traceability – the unbroken series of links between a calibrated instrument and the official NIST standard – can get pretty...

Researchers Determine the Optimum Path for Tracking Fluorescent Nanoparticles Using a Laser

August 29, 2012

NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology researchers Gregg Gallatin and Andrew Berglund (now at Quantifind in Palo Alto, CA) have determined the optimum...

Disseminating the Kilogram, No Strings Attached

August 24, 2012

The impending redefinition of the kilogram presents a weighty dilemma. Methods to be used to realize the redefined kilogram are based on the Planck constant and...

PML Uses Combined Optical Techniques to Provide Important Answers on Graphene Structures

August 13, 2012

That graphene is the hot new material in the world of future electronics manufacturing is well known. With its high carrier mobility and low noise, graphene is...

CNST Releases the Summer 2012 Edition of The CNST News

August 8, 2012

The NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) is pleased to announce the release of the summer 2012 edition of The CNST News. This quarterly...

This cartridge case shows the three distinct marks, or 'signatures,' impressed on its surface when it was fired by a gun

Shelling Out Evidence: NIST Ballistic Standard Helps Tie Guns to Criminals

August 8, 2012

Thanks to a new reference standard developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), law enforcement agencies will have an easier time...

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