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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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New Strontium Atomic Clock at JILA is 'Best in Class'

February 19, 2008

A next-generation atomic clock that tops previous records for accuracy in clocks based on neutral atoms has been demonstrated by physicists at JILA, a joint...

Prototype microchip device combining NIST's miniature atomic magnetometer with a fluid channel

'NMR on a Chip' Features NIST Magnetic Mini-Sensor

February 19, 2008

A super-sensitive mini-sensor developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can detect nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in tiny samples...

Optical 'Frequency Comb' Can Detect the Breath of Disease

February 19, 2008

Exhale on a cold winter day and you will see the water vapor coming out of your mouth. Light up your breath with a Nobel-Prize-related tool, and you could...

Collaboration Helps Make JILA Strontium Atomic Clock ‘Best in Class’

February 14, 2008

BOULDER, Colo.— A next-generation atomic clock that tops previous records for accuracy in clocks based on neutral atoms has been demonstrated by physicists at...

NIST Radio Station WWVH Gets Antenna Makeover

January 23, 2008

Radio station WWVH in Hawaii, operated since 1948 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to broadcast time, frequency and other...

JILA Solves Problem of Quantum Dot 'Blinking'

January 23, 2008

Quantum dots—tiny, intense, tunable sources of colorful light—are illuminating new opportunities in biomedical research, cryptography and other fields. But...

NIST Reference Materials Are 'Gold Standard' for Bio-Nanotech Research

January 8, 2008

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first reference standards for nanoscale particles targeted for the biomedical research...

Radioactive 'Understudy' May Aid Medical Imaging, Drug Development

January 8, 2008

Broadway stars have understudies. Now, an increasingly popular radioactive isotope has its own stand-in. Developed in part by researchers at the National...

This time code generator, built by NIST staff,

NIST Helps Beam Time to TV Viewers in the Middle East

December 12, 2007

Millions of satellite television and radio users in North Africa and the Middle East can now see and hear the precise time of day, thanks to technical...

NIST Helps Preserve the 500-year-old Waldseemüller Map

December 7, 2007

A hermetically sealed glass and aluminum encasement built by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will protect the first world map to label...

Electron micrograph of a NIST-grown nanowire with a high "quality factor" vibrating more than 1 million times per second.

'High Q' NIST Nanowires May be Practical Oscillators

November 27, 2007

Nanowires grown at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a mechanical "quality factor" at least 10 times higher than reported values...

NIST Announces First Observation of 'Persistent Flow' in a Gas

November 27, 2007

Using laser light to stir an ultracold gas of atoms, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute...

Photograph of the NIST micro microwave oven

Micro Microwave Does Pinpoint Cooking for Miniaturized Labs

November 8, 2007

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and George Mason University have demonstrated what is probably the world's smallest...

Bug-Zapper: A Dose of Radiation May Help Knock Out Malaria

November 8, 2007

How are physicists helping an effort to eradicate malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than one million people every year? Researchers at the...

Illustration of NIST's new mini-magnetometer

New NIST Mini-Sensor May Have Biomedical and Security Applications

November 1, 2007

Boulder, Colo. – A tiny sensor that can detect magnetic field changes as small as 70 femtoteslas—equivalent to the brain waves of a person daydreaming—has been...

NIST Staff Honored in 2007 Presidential Rank Awards

October 25, 2007

Four members of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) staff have been honored in the 2007 Presidential Rank Awards. The awards recognize...

NIST Physicist Honored for Measuring Forces between Ultra-cool Atoms

October 25, 2007

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named NIST physicist Paul D. Lett as one of its new fellows. AAAS cites Lett for his work in...

Larger schematic showing a tiny human figure indicates the scale of the ITER toroid.

NIST Light Source Illuminates Fusion Power Diagnostics

October 11, 2007

Using a device that can turn a tiny piece of laboratory space into an ion cloud as hot as those found in a nuclear fusion reactor, physicists at the National...

illustration of NIST's modified field-effect transistor

New Quantum Dot Transistor Counts Individual Photons

October 11, 2007

A transistor containing quantum dots that can count individual photons (the smallest particles of light) has been designed and demonstrated at the National...

'Dead Time' Limits Quantum Cryptography Speeds

September 27, 2007

Quantum cryptography is potentially the most secure method of sending encrypted information, but does it have a speed limit? According to a new paper by...

Artist's rendition of the NIST superconducting quantum computing cable.

Digital Cable Goes Quantum: NIST Debuts Superconducting Quantum Computing Cable

September 26, 2007

BOULDER, Colo.— Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have transferred information between two "artificial atoms" by way of...

JILA Finds Flaw in Model Describing DNA Elasticity

September 13, 2007

DNA, the biomolecule that provides the blueprint for life, has a lesser-known identity as a stretchy polymer. JILA scientists have found a flaw in the most...

Colorized micrograph of a silicon micro-cantilever

'Radio Wave Cooling' Offers New Twist on Laser Cooling

September 13, 2007

Visible and ultraviolet laser light has been used for years to cool trapped atoms—and more recently larger objects—by reducing the extent of their thermal...

JILA Physicist is Finalist for Service to America Medal

August 30, 2007

Konrad Lehnert, a physicist at JILA, is a finalist for the 2007 Service to America medals, presented annually by the non-profit, non-partisan Partnership for...

Cartoon illustrates new NIST technique for selectively modifying resistance of a semiconductor device layer.

Nanoscale Blasting Adjusts Resistance in Magnetic Sensors

August 16, 2007

A new process for adjusting the resistance of semiconductor devices by carpeting a small area of the device with tiny pits, like a yard dug up by demented...

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