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SPS Interns Get the NIST Experience

September 17, 2015

It's not every day that undergraduate students contribute in a meaningful way to research at a national lab in the span of a few weeks. But that's what happened...

JILA instrument for accurately tracking microscopic objects such as DNA molecules

Ultra-stable JILA Microscopy Technique Tracks Tiny Objects for Hours

June 30, 2015

JILA researchers have designed a microscope instrument so stable that it can accurately measure the 3D movement of individual molecules over many hours—hundreds...

Coming Soon: A Calibration Facility for Micro-Flows

May 27, 2015

Many medical treatments both new and old involve extremely small doses of powerful drugs in liquid form – from scorpion venom for cancer research to opioid...

Precocious GEM: Shape-Shifting Sensor Can Report Conditions from Deep in the Body

March 27, 2015

Scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have devised and demonstrated a new...

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...

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...

Better Diagnostic Imaging for Traumatic Brain Injuries

October 23, 2014

Image-calibration technology designed and developed by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in collaboration with the...

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...

JILA Study Finds Crowding Has Big Effects on Biomolecules

May 20, 2014

Crowding has notoriously negative effects at large size scales, blamed for everything from human disease and depression to community resource shortages. But...

Promoting Nanomaterial Manufacturing by Characterizing and Minimizing Environmental Risks

June 26, 2013

While nanomaterials have led to major advances in key U.S. industries, especially the semiconductor industry, their technological promises and possibilities are...

MRI Phantoms: Moving to the Next Stage

June 21, 2013

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an indispensable tool for diagnosing, treating, and understanding a host of medical conditions, and the technology...

MRI: Contrast Agents of Change

March 5, 2013

Thanks to burgeoning progress in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), it may soon be possible to track and study, in vivo and in real time, heretofore invisible...

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...

Artist's conception of JILA's advance in atomic force microscope (AFM) design.

Not-So-Precious: Stripping Gold From AFM Probes Allows Better Measurement of Picoscale Forces

June 27, 2012

Gold is not necessarily precious—at least not as a coating on atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. JILA researchers found that removing an AFM probe's gold...

JILA Frequency Comb Helps Evaluate Novel Biomedical Decontamination Method

June 14, 2012

Like many new measurement tools, the laser frequency comb seemed at first a curiosity but has found more practical uses than originally imagined. The technique...

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...

Illustration showing the laser pulses being emitted, the pulses striking the greenhouse gases, and the backscattered photons returning.

Progress and Promise in DIAL LIDAR

February 6, 2012

For climatologists and environmental policy makers who need to determine the flux of greenhouse gases (GHG), there are three paramount questions: Where is it...

Stretching, the Truth: JILA Biophysicists Help Unravel DNA Stretching Mystery

January 19, 2011

Using a new experimental test structure, biophysicists at JILA have unraveled part of a 15-year mystery in the mechanics of DNA—just how the molecule manages to...

AFM Positioning: Shining Light on a Needle in a Haystack

November 9, 2010

The researchers characterize their new technique as a neat solution to the "needle in a haystack" problem of nanoscale microscopy, but it's more like the...

Nanopore-based single molecule mass spectrometry illustration

NIST Team Advances in Translating Language of Nanopores

June 23, 2010

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists have moved a step closer to developing the means for a rapid diagnostic blood test that can...

Scientists Create NICE Solution to Pneumonia Vaccine Testing Problems

October 20, 2009

Medical clinics the world over could benefit from new software created at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where a team of scientists...

TEDCO NIST NIH Bio-Imaging Technologies Showcase (9/2009)

October 6, 2009

A TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND FEDERAL MARKETPLACE EVENT TEDCO, NIST and NIH Present Bio-imaging Technologies For Commercial Adoption On Tuesday, October 6, 2009...

Image showing use of the NIST "on-demand" single-molecule drop dispenser

New Nanochemistry Technique Encases Single Molecules in Microdroplets

September 22, 2009

Inventing a useful new tool for creating chemical reactions between single molecules, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)...

TEDCO/TCM Tech Transfer Showcase: Opening Doors to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Nanoelectronics, Nanofabrication, and Nanometrology Technologies

April 10, 2008

On Tuesday, April 8, 2008, NIST presented some of its novel technologies developed at the NIST Labs in the nanoelectronics, nanofabrication, and nanometrology...

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