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Physical Measurement Laboratory

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Stunt Doubles: Ultracold Atoms Could Replicate the Electron 'Jitterbug'

March 18, 2008

Ultracold atoms moving through a carefully designed arrangement of laser beams will jiggle slightly as they go, two NIST scientists have predicted.* If observed...

This schematic illustrates the operation of a prototype Lyman alpha neutron detector (LAND).

New NIST Detector Can 'See' Single Neutrons Over Broad Range

March 18, 2008

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a new optical method that can detect...

Loopy Photons Clarify 'Spookiness' of Quantum Physics

March 18, 2008

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute (NIST/University of Maryland) have developed a new...

A Sub-femtosecond Stop Watch for 'Photon Finish' Races

March 14, 2008

Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (a partnership of the...

Lloyd Whitman Named Deputy Director of NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology

March 7, 2008

Robert Celotta, Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), announced the...

NIST 'Quantum Logic Clock' Rivals Mercury Ion as World's Most Accurate Clock

March 6, 2008

BOULDER, Colo.—An atomic clock that uses an aluminum atom to apply the logic of computers to the peculiarities of the quantum world now rivals the world's most...

Good Vibrations Probe Innards of Molecular Electronic Junctions

March 5, 2008

Using an unusual spectroscopic technique, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have provided the most convincing evidence...

NIST Mini Sensor May 'Change the Way We Live'

March 5, 2008

Miniature magnetic sensors made at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have won a spot on Technology Review's annual list of 10...

Directed Self-Ordering of Organic Molecules for Electronic Devices

February 19, 2008

A simple surface treatment technique demonstrated by a collaboration between researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Penn...

New NIST Video: Bill Phillips School Talk on the Science of Ultracold

February 19, 2008

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has produced a DVD of a presentation that Nobel laureate William Phillips, a physicist at NIST, gave...

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...

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