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Material Measurement Laboratory

Materials Science and Engineering Division

News and Updates

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Metal Detectives: New Book Details Titanic Investigation

April 15, 2008

In February 1998, Timothy Foecke, a metallurgist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), published a rather low-key "interagency report"

A novel technique for controlling the orientation of nanostructures is to use disordered, roughened substrates.

Copolymers Block Out New Approaches to Microelectronics at NIST

March 18, 2008

In response to the electronics industry's rallying cry of "smaller and faster," the next breakthroughs in the electronics size barrier are likely to come from

Joint Research: Probing the Mysteries of a Surprisingly Tough Hydrogel

March 18, 2008

Some 46 million people suffer from arthritis in the United States alone. The worst cases require painful surgeries to drill holes in and reinforce joints. Now

Nanomaterials Show Unexpected Strength Under Stress

March 18, 2008

In yet another twist on the strangeness of the nanoworld, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of

Confocal microscope image of a carbon nanotube/polypropylene composite.

Shear Ingenuity: Tweaking the Conductivity of Nanotube Composites

February 5, 2008

One of the immediate applications of carbon nanotubes (CNT) is as an additive to polymers to create electrically conducting plastics—a relatively low CNT

Microscopic beads embedded in a gel surface were used to trace the motion of a gel forming an interface with a liquid.

Videos Extract Mechanical Properties of Liquid-Gel Interfaces

January 23, 2008

Blood coursing through vessels, lubricated cartilage sliding against joints, ink jets splashing on paper—living and nonliving things abound with fluids meeting

The four images (taken with scanning laser confocal microscopy) show variations in surface roughness of an aluminum alloy as produced by increasing amounts of strain

Rough Times: NIST's New Approach to Surface Profiling

January 8, 2008

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a novel technique for measuring the roughness of surfaces that is

Longer is Better for Nanotube Optical Properties

August 30, 2007

If you want to exploit the ability of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to absorb, fluoresce and scatter light, take the advice of a sandlot quarterback

Study: Cells Selectively Absorb Short Nanotubes

March 30, 2007

DNA-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) shorter than about 200 nanometers readily enter into human lung cells and so may pose an increased risk to

Designer Gradients Speed Surface Science Experiments

June 8, 2006

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated an elegantly simple technique for synthesizing a wide variety of

Boettinger Elected to Engineering Academy

February 16, 2006

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) metallurgist William J. Boettinger has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), an honor

A New Structural View of Organic Electronic Devices

September 9, 2005

Although still in the qualifying rounds, U.S. researchers are helping manufacturers win the race to develop low-cost ways to commercialize a multitude of

Colorized micrograph of a nanoporous insulation film after "wrinkling" with a new NIST measurement method.

NIST Testing Method Quickly Tells Whether Thin Films Are Strong Enough for the Job

July 12, 2004

The challenge of determining whether thin films—some no thicker than a single molecule—are strong enough for a growing number of important technology jobs just

Keeping Drugs Stable Without Refrigeration

June 16, 2004

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but it may take only a thin coating of freeze-dried sugar to keep insulin, vaccines and other heat-sensitive

Polyester Blend Aids in Scientific Pursuit of Future Composites

May 4, 1999

Scientists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology today announced that they have taken a major step toward the manufacture

Advance Could Lead Eventually To Big Savings In Metal-Forming Industry

July 21, 1998

Scientists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology are the first to succeed in using a new technique that shows precisely

Failure of Tiny Rivets May Have Sunk 'Unsinkable' Liner

February 17, 1998

When the remains of the RMS Titanic were discovered more than two miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in 1985, the story of the great liner once

NIST Presents Slichter Award to Bur, Migler and Wang For Developing Novel Probes to Control Polymer Processing

December 10, 1997

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has presented the William P. Slichter Award to Anthony Bur, Kalman Migler and Francis Wang of the agency’s

Pioneering Research In X-ray and Neutron Examination of Polymer Films Earns Stratton Award For Wu

December 10, 1997

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has presented the Samuel Wesley Stratton Award to Wen-Li Wu of the agency’s Materials Science and Engineering

Close up of high speed compression Kolsky bar

NIST Joins New International Collaboration for Advancing Machining Science

A new collaborative effort among NIST and the Institute of Manufacturing Engineering and Photonic Technologies ( IFT) located at the Technical University of

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