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News and Updates

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How the Cone Snail’s Deadly Venom Can Help Us Build Better Medicines

October 10, 2017

Cone snails have inspired humans for centuries. Coastal communities have often traded their beautiful shells like money and put them in jewelry. Many artists

NIST’s Quick Test May Speed Antibiotic Treatment and Combat Drug Resistance

September 22, 2017

BOULDER, Colo.—Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a potential new tactic for rapidly determining whether

Illustration of 5 roundish objects of purple and blue arranged in a circle

NIST Standard Story: Matters of the Heart

September 20, 2017

NIST scientists have thoroughly measured and characterized more than 1,300 physical products, NIST Standard Reference Materials ®, to help people in industry

New NIST Tool Aims to Improve Accuracy of Test to Determine Cardiovascular Disease Risk

September 19, 2017

Cardiovascular disease caused one out of three deaths in the United States in 2016, and for decades it has been the leading killer for both men and women

Image of a research platform that can report oceanographic and atmospheric data via satellite.

NIST Publishes 2016 Department of Commerce Laboratories Technology Transfer Report

September 11, 2017

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the U.S. Commerce Department’s (DOC) 2016 Annual Report on Technology

Illustration with four photos: solar field, power tower, highway and ambulance with a lock graphic in the middle

NIST, DHS Join Forces to Create Cybersecure Communities Around the Globe

August 24, 2017

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will jointly sponsor the 2018 Global City Teams

Woman uses gas analysis mass spectrometer at NBS for chemical analysis of gas or vapor mixtures

NIST Upgrades Widely Used Database of Molecular 'Fingerprints'

June 6, 2017

When scientists need to identify an unknown compound, they do what a police detective might do. They get fingerprints—in this case, the “molecular fingerprints”

The Genuine Article

May 20, 2017

NIST accelerates the transformation of laboratory discoveries into new therapies and commercial products by assuring the quality of measurements in biomedical

diagram of amantadine hydrochloride structure

New NIST Data to Aid Production and Storage of 'Fascinating' Medication

May 2, 2017

Amantadine hydrochloride may be the most common medication you’ve never heard of. This compound has been around for decades as the basis for antiviral and other

JILA Team Discovers Many New Twists in Protein Folding

March 2, 2017

BOULDER, Colo.-- Biophysicists at JILA have measured protein folding in more detail than ever before, revealing behavior that is surprisingly more complex than

A fluorescent microscope image of NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells

NIST Patents First DNA Method to Authenticate Mouse Cell Lines

February 23, 2017

“A case of mistaken identity” may drive the plot of the latest spy film or crime novel, but it’s only a tale of trouble for geneticists, oncologists, drug

Diving Deep into the Dolphin Genome Could Benefit Human Health

February 22, 2017

In movies and TV shows, dolphins are often portrayed as heroes who save humans through remarkable feats of strength and tenacity. Now dolphins could save the

‘Start Codons’ in DNA and RNA May Be More Numerous Than Previously Thought

February 21, 2017

For decades, scientists working with genetic material have labored with a few basic rules in mind. To start, DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), and

A Message from the MML Director

February 15, 2017

" A Message from the MML Director" appears in each edition of Material Matters, the quarterly magazine of NIST's Material Measurement Lab. This letter from MML

NIST Standard Story: No Humans Were Harmed

February 15, 2017

NIST scientists have thoroughly measured and characterized more than 1,300 physical products, NIST Standard Reference Materials ®, to help people in industry

Wearable ‘Watches’ to Monitor Your Blood Pressure

January 24, 2017

What if there were a wearable fitness device that could monitor your blood pressure continuously, 24 hours a day? Unfortunately, blood pressure (BP)

How Sweet It Is: NIST Metrology and the Maple Syrup Industry

January 4, 2017

NIST is frequently asked to provide unusual, sometimes downright exotic, measurements and calibrations in support of U.S. commerce. But even old hands in the

How To Tell When a Nanoparticle is Out of Shape

December 20, 2016

Nanoparticles -- those with diameters less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair -- are increasingly prevalent in high technology, medicine, and

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker Announces Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Institute Joining Manufacturing USA Network

December 16, 2016

NEWARK, Del.— U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced today an award of $70 million to the new National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing