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Public Safety

My Stay-at-Home Lab Shows How Face Coverings Can Slow the Spread of Disease

June 11, 2020

Editor’s note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing face coverings in public settings. Since COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to

$an opalescent close up of Roman glass. There is a clear semi-circular fracture in the center of the piece.$

Ancient Roman Glass, Perceiving Color in LED, 3D Mapping for Public Safety, SRMs in Space: A Sample of Stories From the Social Sphere

May 26, 2020

Photos of culinary masterpieces, opinions on world events, memories from the good times … we share a lot on social media to feel connected and together

How the JFK Assassination Bullets Were Digitally Preserved at NIST

May 5, 2020

They were long, round-nosed rifle bullets. Their copper metal jackets had the dull color of a worn penny, giving testimony to their age. The gun-barrel rifling

Answering the Call: How NIST Helps Crime Labs Recover Evidence from Mobile Devices

April 14, 2020

Everyone has a phone these days, even the bad guys. To try to get away with their crimes, lawbreakers sometimes attempt to destroy their phones and the evidence

When Standardized Data Can Help Save Lives

July 30, 2019

When you email a friend, you don’t have to worry about whether they use Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or some other email provider. You just enter their email address

Human DNA Standard: A Q&A With NIST’s Becky Steffen

July 16, 2019

How do you solve a crime using DNA? First, you have to find biological evidence — such as blood, other bodily fluids, or maybe just a few skin cells that might

Mission Critical Voice Communications: Your Life May Depend on It!

June 18, 2019

Just about everyone knows someone who works in public safety. For me, I have two close family members who are first responders. My brother-in-law is a

Improving the Quality of Life through Smart Cities and Internet of Things Innovation

June 11, 2019

How It All Started Six years ago, I joined the U.S. federal government as a Presidential Innovation Fellow. The White House established the program to bring in

Defending Against Nuclear and Radioactive Threats: A Q&A with NIST's Leticia Pibida

May 9, 2019

Leticia Pibida, a physicist in the Radiation Physics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been chosen as a finalist for a

National DNA Day and the Birth of Investigative Genetic Genealogy

April 25, 2019

Happy National DNA Day! Each year on April 25 we celebrate the 1953 publication of James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin’s

Making Fighting Fires in Virtual Reality More Like Real Reality

December 20, 2018

It all started with a conversation at the dinner table with my Uncle Dale. Dale had worked at Boca Raton Fire Rescue for 36 years before retiring as a captain

Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover: The NIST Cybersecurity Framework

October 23, 2018

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework consists of standards, guidelines and best practices to manage cybersecurity-related risk. The Framework’s prioritized

Forensic Science is in My DNA

September 18, 2018

Working in law enforcement is as tough as it is rewarding. I got my start in 1968 as a beat cop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My initial years on the force eventually

Flying Drones Compete to Complete Unprecedented Feat

August 1, 2018

Whether it’s the effort to redefine the kilogram or researching the Harry Potter realm of quantum mechanics where things can somehow be in two or more places at

Before the Storm: Measuring and Predicting Hurricanes

June 5, 2018

The Atlantic hurricane season is now upon us, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released its 2018 seasonal hurricane

Judging the Quality of Forensic Evidence

January 25, 2018

While NIST is not a teaching institution per se, teaching comes naturally to many of us who work here. We’re always describing our work in scientific meetings

A Framework for Protecting Our Critical Infrastructure

November 1, 2017

There’s no disputing the importance of a reliable and well-functioning critical infrastructure when it comes to our daily lives—in fact, our national and

Why Security and Privacy Matter in a Digital World

September 28, 2017

One cannot pick up a newspaper, watch TV, listen to the radio, or scan the news on the internet without some direct or veiled reference to the lack of

'Cybersecuring' the Internet of Things

June 27, 2017

I recently had the chance to talk with the legendary Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the internet. We had a wide-ranging discussion about the past

Better Image-Quality Measurements for Bomb Squads

May 18, 2017

I’ve been interested in science ever since I was a child. If you had told 8-year-old me that I was going to be a physicist, then I would have been very excited

Making 'The Technology' for Exoskeletons a Reality

February 28, 2017

I grew up in a small farming community in southern Georgia. My main exposure to new technology was through the annual farm equipment exposition, science fiction

Rethinking Cybersecurity from the Inside Out

November 15, 2016

After four years of research and development, NIST has published a groundbreaking new security guideline that addresses the longstanding problem of how to

Men working at construction site with wood planks on ground and gray house dangling in air by crane

Building Codes, Planning Key to Community Resilience

September 21, 2016

“Buildings built to the most modern building codes were the safest places to be during Hurricane Sandy.” Having spent most of my life in code enforcement, I’ve

Smoke Signals: Ensuring the Clarity of Emergency Communications

September 9, 2016

If you’ve ever used a device that picks up signals over the air, you know that sometimes you just can’t get the signal to come in clearly. You point the device

Revolution by Design: The Materials Genome Initiative

August 17, 2016

The creation of a new material has long been either an accident or a matter of trial and error. Steel, for instance, was developed over hundreds of years by

Know Nukes: Reference Materials for Nuclear Forensics

July 25, 2016

Legwarmers, preppies, yuppies, Molly Ringwald, nuclear paranoia … the 1980s were my favorite decade. I was in junior high school in New Jersey when I saw The

Building a Firearms Toolmark Database

July 22, 2016

Although they are mass produced, every firearm is unique, and when fired, they leave unique markings called toolmarks on the bullet and cartridge casing. Law

A line of cars with fire and smoke nearby

Fighting Fire with Fire-Breathing Dragons

June 22, 2016

I’m a dragon wrangler. While that might sound like something straight out of Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, this isn’t fantasy, this is serious science. As a

Celebrating World Accreditation Day

June 9, 2016

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

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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).

Taking Measure