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Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

NIST General

Taking a Closer Look at Old Photos

My mom is a painter, so I grew up in a messy house full of brushes, twisted tubes of paint, pots of ink, plaster busts of various Romans, rolls of papers, and

Taking a Seat at the Periodic Table

In case you haven’t already heard, if you wanted to give your loved one that special, once-in-a-lifetime gift by naming one of the elements in row 7 of the

Busting Myths about the Metric System

This year will be the 45th anniversary of the Metric Conversion Act, which was signed on December 23, 1975, by President Gerald R. Ford. Normally, we celebrate

Finding Art in Science

I’m a graphic designer, or, in the language of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a "Visual Information Specialist." For the past 18 years I’ve been

An Amelia Earhart Mystery at NIST

Amelia Earhart continues to make headlines, mainly because of her mysterious disappearance. The famed aviatrix vanished on July 2, 1937, during her attempt to

Celebrating World Accreditation Day

Want to pique interest in a subject area? Throw a party — right? Enter 2008 and World Accreditation Day. It was Monday, June 9, to be exact. I would love to be

Science, Science Fiction, and Superheroes

I’m a physicist, and as anyone who watches the popular TV series “ The Big Bang Theory” knows, it’s a commonly held conception that there is a strong connection

Make a Mint Using Measurement Science

Put your hands together. Now move them back and forth to rub them against each other. Feel that heat? That’s from friction. No matter if it’s between siblings

My Memories of John Cahn

This article was written in response to the March 14, 2016, death of John Cahn , one of the world’s foremost materials scientists, who worked at NIST from 1977

Weighing My Career as a Metrologist

As happens with most every metrologist I know, I fell into metrology (the science of measurement) quite by accident. My degree was in chemical engineering, and

Happy Weights and Measures Week 2016!

Like many of you, I venture out on Saturday mornings to get groceries and gas. Until my college years, I never thought much about whether or not I paid the

The Periodic Table: It’s Elementary!

Of all the many useful and interesting periodic tables on the Internet—the periodic tables of the animals, vegetables, and minerals—and U.S. Presidents, Vienna®

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