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Physical Measurement Laboratory

Radiation Physics Division

News and Updates

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NIST Gets New Angle on X-Ray Measurements

March 9, 2015

Criminal justice, cosmology and computer manufacturing may not look to have much in common, but these and many other disparate fields all depend on sensitive

Computing for Better Radiation Therapy

February 19, 2015

Doctors devising a plan of attack on a tumor may one day gain another tactical advantage thanks to a series of sophisticated calculations proposed by PML's

Hidden Uncertainties Uncovered in Nuclear Forensic Measurement

February 2, 2015

A little detective work by nuclear physicists has uncovered hidden uncertainties in a popular method for precisely measuring radioactive nuclides, often used to

Prototype for First Traceable PET-MR Phantom

January 23, 2015

As cancer diagnostic tools, a new class of imagers – which combines positron-emission tomography (PET) with magnetic resonance imaging (MR or MRI) – has shown

Ultrasonic Thermometers for Medical Dosimetry

December 16, 2014

PML researchers are exploring whether ultrasound can be used as a faster, more efficient way to take three-dimensional images of radiation dose profiles in

NIST Helps NTSB Solve 787 Battery Fire Puzzle

December 10, 2014

In January, 2013, an auxiliary power unit battery aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" experienced a "thermal runaway event" resulting in fire and

Better Cargo Inspection Standards at Border Crossings

December 2, 2014

As part of an Interagency Agreement between NIST and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), PML's Radiation Physics Division recently completed a series of

Calibrating Cancer Radiotherapy Beams Using Light and Sound

September 17, 2014

Doctors shrink tumors with radiation therapy, but a badly calibrated beam can cause serious complications. Scientists in NIST's Radiation Physics Division in

Polonium's Most Stable Isotope Gets Revised Half-Life Measurement

September 9, 2014

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have determined* that polonium-209, the longest-lived isotope of this radioactive heavy

A phantom (life-size dummy) in the scanner

Backscatter Body Scan Redux

July 21, 2014

Airline passengers have already said bon voyage to the controversial backscatter x-ray security scanners, pulled from U.S. airports in 2013 over concerns about

Toward New Precision in Measuring the Neutron Lifetime

February 3, 2014

A team of PML scientists and collaborators* has achieved a five-fold reduction in the dominant uncertainty in an experiment that measured the mean lifetime of

Spraying Mosquitoes . . . with Gamma Rays

August 16, 2013

A recently announced malaria vaccine – found to be 100 % effective in a small human sample – was years in the making, and its creators had to overcome many

New NIST Standard Reference Material to Help Calibrate Hospital CAT Scanners

July 23, 2013

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new standard reference material (SRM), the first such measurement tool

Luggage Screening Standards Prove Their Value

June 5, 2013

Every month, between 50 and 70 million passengers travel through U.S. airports, toting more than 30 million pieces of luggage destined for aircraft cargo holds

A Whole New Angle on Neutron Spin Analysis

January 18, 2013

For most Americans, neutron spin-polarization filter cells are a relatively rare topic of conversation. Yet these exotic devices are essential to instruments

Using Calorimetry to Estimate Absorbed Dose from CT Scans

December 21, 2012

In the United States, about 80 million x-ray computed tomography (CT) scans are made every year – 7 million of them on children – according to the American

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

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 Effort Could Improve High-Tech Medical Scanners

June 12, 2012

A powerful color-based imaging technique is making the jump from remote sensing to the operating room—and a team of scientists* at the National Institute of

New Detector Design Improves Gamma-Ray Measurements

April 6, 2012

In the pursuit of precision measurements, nothing is simple, even when the apparatus employed appears to be utterly uncomplicated. An instructive case in point

NIST Measurements May Help Optimize Organic Solar Cells

March 6, 2012

Organic solar cells may be a step closer to market because of measurements taken at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Naval

NIST Sensor Improvement Brings Analysis Method into Mainstream

December 20, 2011

An advance in sensor design by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Waterloo's Institute of Quantum

Sharpened Focus: Improving the Numbers, Utility of Medical Imaging

April 12, 2011

The idea of probing the body's interior with radiation stretches back to experiments with X rays in the 1800s, but more than a century later, images taken with

R&D 100 Award for New NIST/UMD Neutron Detector

July 9, 2008

A new ultrasensitive, high bandwidth neutron detector developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UMD

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

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