Rich Press

Feature Stories

Who Was Detective X?

In the gangster era of Prohibition and the Great Depression, a physicist at the National Bureau of Standards, now NIST

Black background. Photo of a penny. Next to the penny is a tiny amount of a white powder.

Safe, Efficient, Reliable: New Science in the Fight Against Killer Drugs

NIST researchers give law enforcement and public health experts new tools to combat fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

Masks Under the Microscope

To understand how something works, it helps to see it up close. A team of researchers took this approach when studying

A Speed Gun for Photosynthesis

How fast is that plant pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere? You may soon be able to point a sensor at it to find out.

Measuring the Sensitivity of COVID Tests With New Material From NIST

NIST researchers have produced synthetic gene fragments from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This material

News

NIST Puts New Biopharmaceutical Quality Control Method to the Test

March 29, 2021

A new method for monitoring biopharmaceutical product quality was recently put to the test by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and 28

An illustration of a green sphere made of puzzle pieces against a dark background.

Scientists Create Simple Synthetic Cell That Grows and Divides Normally

March 29, 2021

Five years ago, scientists created a single-celled synthetic organism that, with only 473 genes, was the simplest living cell ever known. However, this bacteria

Study Indicates That Humidity in Breath Makes Cotton Masks More Effective at Slowing the Spread of COVID-19

March 9, 2021

Researchers have come up with a better way to test which fabrics work best for masks that are meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. By testing those fabrics

A scientist in lab coat and rubber gloves places a large clear bag of marijuana on a weighing scale.

NIST Study Will Help Labs Distinguish Between Hemp and Marijuana

January 14, 2021

Hemp and marijuana both come from the Cannabis plant. But legally, they are very different. If cannabis has less than 0.3% THC — for tetrahydrocannabinol, the

K9 Chemistry: A Safer Way to Train Detection Dogs

December 2, 2020

Trained dogs are incredible chemical sensors, far better at detecting explosives, narcotics and other substances than even the most advanced technological

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Publications

NIST Scientific Foundation Reviews

December 18, 2020

Author(s)

John M. Butler, Hariharan K. Iyer, Richard A. Press, Melissa K. Taylor, Peter M. Vallone, Sheila Willis

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a scientific research agency that works to advance measurement science, standards, and technology

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Rich Press (Fed)

Science Writer and Public Affairs Specialist