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Physics

News and Updates

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NIST Debuts Dual Atomic Clock — and a New Stability Record

November 28, 2016

What could be better than a world-leading atomic clock? Two clocks in one. Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have combined...

Universe’s Constants Now Known with Sufficient Certainty to Completely Redefine the International System of Units

November 22, 2016

Fundamental constants are physical quantities that are universal in nature. For example, the speed of light in vacuum and the charge of a single electron are...

Big G Redux: Solving the Mystery of a Perplexing Result

November 16, 2016

If you spend time in physics research circles, you may have heard of the big G controversy. The universal constant of gravitation, G – affectionately known as...

Seeing Light’s Effect on Atoms — Within Picoseconds

November 16, 2016

For the first time in a laboratory setting, NIST scientists have made stop-action x-ray measurements of the way visible light interacts with atoms and molecules...

Noise, Temperature, and the New SI

November 15, 2016

NIST has recently made substantial improvements to its Johnson-noise thermometry system, which is playing a vital role in the worldwide effort to determine the...

This artist’s conception imagines the proposed ring of atoms as cars on a beltway.

Atomic Beltway Could Solve Problems of Cosmic Gravity

November 14, 2016

When is a traffic jam not a traffic jam? When it's a quantum traffic jam, of course. Only in quantum physics can traffic be standing still and moving at the...

National Aviation History Month: Earth Inductor Compass

November 9, 2016

In 1922 NIST physicists Lyman Briggs and Paul Heyl were awarded the Magellan Medal from the American Philosophical Society for their model of an Earth Inductor...

JILA Team Spots Elusive Intermediate Compound in Atmospheric Chemistry

October 27, 2016

BOULDER, Colo.-- JILA physicists and colleagues have identified a long-missing piece in the puzzle of exactly how fossil fuel combustion contributes to air...

Move Over, Lasers: Scientists Can Now Create Holograms from Neutrons, Too

October 20, 2016

For the first time, a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used neutron beams to create holograms of...

Screenshot of an animation of a superradiant laser

JILA’s Superradiant Laser May One Day Boost Atomic Clocks and ‘Rulers’ for Space

October 14, 2016

BOULDER, Colo. – JILA physicists have demonstrated a novel laser design based on synchronized emissions of light from the same type of atoms used in advanced...

Supported by Granite, New SURF Beamline Is Real Heavyweight

September 21, 2016

If your work involves sensing, measuring or using ultraviolet light, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has great news for you: Granite...

Prominent NIST and JILA Physicist Deborah Jin Passes Away

September 19, 2016

Physicist Deborah Jin, a world leader in exotic states of matter called ultracold quantum gases, passed away September 15, 2016, from cancer. She was 47 years...

NIST Patents Single-Photon Detector for Potential Encryption and Sensing Apps

September 15, 2016

Individual photons of light now can be detected far more efficiently using a device patented by a team including the National Institute of Standards and...

NIST and Navy Tests Suggest Telecom Networks Could Back Up GPS Time Signals

September 8, 2016

Precision time signals sent through the Global Positioning System (GPS) synchronize cellphone calls, time-stamp financial transactions, and support safe travel...

Harmful Algal Blooms in Their True Colors

August 26, 2016

Explosive growth of cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae, is nothing new. In fact, such cyanobacteria probably produced the original oxygen in Earth's...

Crystal Unclear: Why Might This Uncanny Crystal Change Laser Design?

August 26, 2016

Laser applications may benefit from crystal research by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and China's Shandong University...

Counting Down to the New Ampere

August 25, 2016

After it's all over, your lights will be just as bright, and your refrigerator just as cold. But very soon the ampere -- the SI base unit of electrical current...

Measuring Tiny Forces with Light

August 24, 2016

Photons are bizarre: They have no mass, but they do have momentum. And that allows researchers to do counterintuitive things with photons, such as using light...

NIST's compact gyroscope measures rotation by analyzing patterns of interfering matter waves in an expanding cloud of atoms transitioning between two energy states.

NIST's Compact Gyroscope May Turn Heads

August 23, 2016

Shrink rays may exist only in science fiction, but similar effects are at work in the real world at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)...

Gebbie, Physics Visionary and Mentor to Nobel Laureates, Dies at 84

August 18, 2016

Katharine Blodgett Gebbie, a visionary physicist and senior government research administrator who supervised and mentored four Nobel laureates in physics, died...

An Optical Method of Sorting Nanoparticles by Size

August 17, 2016

NIST scientists have devised and modeled a unique optical method of sorting microscopic and nanoscopic particles by size, with a resolution as fine as 1...

Realizing the Potential of Quantum Information Science and Advancing High-Performance Computing

July 27, 2016

The White House announced today a new report from the National Science and Technology Council on challenges, opportunities and the path forward in quantum...

student wearing helmet with multi-colored wires

Detecting Brain Waves with Atomic Vapor

July 26, 2016

It's really hard to hear what the brain is saying. Neural impulses -- currents of ions moving through channels between the brain's 100 billion neurons at a...

NIST's Newest Watt Balance Brings World One Step Closer to New Kilogram

June 21, 2016

A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step...

Physicists measured something new in the radioactive decay of neutrons

June 14, 2016

A physics experiment performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has enhanced scientists' understanding of how free neutrons decay...

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