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Physics

News and Updates

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Redefining the SI Base Units

November 2, 2011

Note: Much more recent information is available about redefinition of the SI units. For a comprehensive general overview, see How to Weigh Everything from...

Future 'Comb on a Chip': NIST's Compact Frequency Comb Could Go Places

October 25, 2011

Laser frequency combs—extraordinarily precise tools for measuring frequencies (or colors) of light—have helped propel advances in timekeeping, trace gas...

Quantum Computer Components 'Coalesce' to 'Converse'

October 25, 2011

If quantum computers are ever to be realized, they likely will be made of different types of parts that will need to share information with one another, just...

NIST Measures Key Property of Potential 'Spintronic' Material

October 19, 2011

An advanced material that could help bring about next-generation "spintronic" computers has revealed one of its fundamental secrets to a team of scientists from...

Traveling SIRCUS Tests Satellite Sensors

October 3, 2011

For NASA's Earth Observing System satellite fleet, sensor failure is not an option. The nation depends critically on the data from those satellites, orbiting...

NIST Gets HIP: a New method for testing optical imaging sensors

October 3, 2011

A new type of scene projector in development at PML will enable the performance of future optical and infrared imaging instruments to be evaluated by having...

Reading Between the Lines in Lithium: New measurements of unprecedented accuracy resolve a longstanding data disagreement problem

October 3, 2011

A team of PML researchers has solved a longstanding problem plaguing experimental tests of the atomic theory of lithium, and in the process uncovered a...

All Time, All the Time: Improving NIST Radio

October 3, 2011

For huge numbers of people in North America who spend their days in schools, offices, stores, factories and public facilities, the time of their lives comes...

Iron 'Veins' Are Secret of Promising New Hydrogen Storage Material

August 30, 2011

With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the problem of safely storing hydrogen in...

NIST Achieves Record-Low Error Rate for Quantum Information Processing with One Qubit

August 30, 2011

Thanks to advances in experimental design, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have achieved a record-low probability of...

Ion Armageddon: Measuring the Impact Energy of Highly Charged Ions

August 30, 2011

Much like a meteor impacting a planet, highly charged ions hit really hard and can do a lot of damage, albeit on a much smaller scale. And much like geologists...

NIST/JQI Researcher Ian Spielman to Receive 2011 Junior BEC Award

August 30, 2011

Ian Spielman, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaborative enterprise of...

Better 'Photon Loops' May Be Key to Computer and Physics Advances

August 22, 2011

Surprisingly, transmitting information-rich photons thousands of miles through fiber-optic cable is far easier than reliably sending them just a few nanometers...

NIST Physicists 'Entangle' Two Atoms Using Microwaves for the First Time

August 10, 2011

BOULDER, Colo. – Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have for the first time linked the quantum properties of two separated...

The Constants They Are A Changin': NIST Posts Latest Adjustments to Fundamental Figures

July 19, 2011

The electromagnetic force has gotten a little stronger, gravity a little weaker, and the size of the smallest "quantum" of energy is now known a little better...

NIST Prototype 'Optics Table on a Chip' Places Microwave Photon in Two Colors at Once

July 6, 2011

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a tunable superconducting circuit on a chip that can place a single...

NIST's superconducting circuit containing a 'micro drum' sitting atop of a penny to show how much smaller it is.

Cooler Than Ever: NIST Mechanical Micro-Drum Chilled to Quantum Ground State

July 6, 2011

BOULDER, Colo. – Showcasing new tools for widespread development of quantum circuits made of mechanical parts, scientists from the National Institute of...

Colorized micrograph of ultrafast single-photon detector

Key Ingredient: Change in Material Boosts Prospects of Ultrafast Single-photon Detector

June 30, 2011

By swapping one superconducting material for another, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found a practical way to...

Photo of UC graduate student Matt Kirchner fine-tuning an ultra-stable microwave generator at NIST

A Quiet Phase: NIST Optical Tools Produce Ultra-low-noise Microwave Signals

June 27, 2011

By combining advanced laser technologies in a new way, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have generated microwave signals...

John Cahn to Receive 2011 Kyoto Prize For Fundamental Contributions to Materials Science

June 24, 2011

John Cahn, an emeritus senior fellow and materials scientist at the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was named...

Photo of an advanced laser in the back of a car

Drive Test: NIST Super-stable Laser Shines in Minivan Experiment

May 10, 2011

In a step toward taking the most advanced atomic clocks on the road, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have designed and...

Photo of NIST physicist Jun Ye with his strontium atomic clock

NIST/JILA Physicist Jun Ye Elected to National Academy of Sciences

May 10, 2011

Physicist Jun Ye, a Fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a Fellow of JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of...

NIST's Charles Clark Named Co-Director of the Joint Quantum Institute

May 10, 2011

Physicist Charles Clark of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been named a co-director of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a...

New Calculations on Blackbody Energy Set the Stage for Clocks with Unprecedented Accuracy

May 6, 2011

A team of physicists from the United States and Russia announced today that it has developed a means for computing, with unprecedented accuracy, a tiny...

Good Eggs: NIST Nanomagnets Offer Food for Thought About Computer Memories

April 26, 2011

Magnetics researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) colored lots of eggs recently. Bunnies and children might find the eggs a bit...

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