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Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

NIST General

Title card reads "A Scientific Christmas Tale" with the NIST logo in a wreath and flashing holiday lights.

A Scientific Christmas Tale

’Twas the night before Christmas; NIST staff had gone home. Our director was left to reflect all alone. She thought about NIST and the breadth of its work, from
digital clock in orbit around Earth. The clock face reads 11:59:60.

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 5

This is part 5 in a series. Read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. The Leap Second Solution When atomic clocks were developed in the 1950s, scientists needed
pair of feet standing on either side of the prime meridian in Greenwich, England

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 4

This is part 4 in a series. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3. Greenwich Mean Time In the previous essay I introduced mean solar time, which averaged the annual
wood pendulum clock hung on a wood paneled wall

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 3

This is part 3 in a series. Read part 1 and part 2. Oscillators and Clocks In the previous essay, I introduced the ideas that frequency and time interval are
pipe organ

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 2

This is part 2 in a series. Read part 1. A short history of frequency Frequency was originally considered to be the province of musicians. The pitches or
NIST physicist Judah Levine with the NIST time scale, a digital clock face reading 14:33:34 and a bank of atomic clocks.

Everyday Time and Atomic Time: Part 1

As a physicist in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Time and Frequency Division, I have worked in the general area of operating atomic
white pi symbol on a grey field made up of the numbers of pi

The Life of (Buckingham) Pi

What do the following topics have in common? Pricing models for parking reservation systems. The mechanics of human walking. The die-down of water waves in sea
Text reads "2019 top 7 visuals." Text is surrounded by pictures that appear in the article.

Top 7 NIST Visuals of 2019

Science, while important, is often thought of as, well, kind of dry in the ocular department. The visuals commonly associated with scientific endeavors are
a graphic with a large 5 surrounded by objects from the post including mysterious museum objects, a blackboard with equations on it, a cellphone, and three vials. Additional text above the 5 reads "2019 Taking Measure."

Top 5 NIST Blog Posts of 2019

It’s December, and that means it’s time for us to reflect on the past year, and what a year it was! This year tens of thousands of people tuned into the

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About this blog

Taking Measure is the official blog of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

It provides a behind-the-scenes look at NIST’s research and programs, covering a broad range of science and technology areas. Through this blog, NIST’s researchers and staff share why they do what they do and how today’s research will lead to tomorrow’s innovations.

The views presented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of NIST.

If you have any questions about our blog or reprint requests, please contact us at takingmeasure [at] nist.gov (takingmeasure[at]nist[dot]gov).