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Nuclear physics

News and Updates

NIST Team Uses Neutron Beams to Authenticate Historic Coins and Spot Fakes

Imaging antique coins with beams of low-energy neutrons, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have demonstrated a method to distinguish century-old coins from fakes. Authenticating coins is critical because scientists rely on them to chronicle the economic, political, and scientific developments of nations. NIST researchers Youngju Kim

New Report Highlights Economic Value of Neutron Science to U.S. Industry

Imaging the Elusive Skyrmion

Research on the Rocks: Combining Neutrons and X-Ray Imaging, NIST Scientists Study Meteorites to Explore the Mystery of How Earth Acquired Its Water

Blog Posts

A ‘Forever’ Stamp and a Discovery That Changed Physics Forever

With a new “forever” stamp honoring "First Lady of Physics" Chien-Shiung Wu, we have come very close to seeing a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher on a U.S. postage stamp. Over the course of six months in 1956, Wu worked with researchers Ernest Ambler (who went on to become NIST director in the 1970s and ’80s), Raymond W. Hayward, Dale D. Hoppes and Ralph P. Hudson

How Neutrons and Gamma Rays Can Reveal Our Cultural Heritage

The Curiously Colorful Wall of NIST's Radiation Physics Building

The Periodic Table: It's More than Just Chemistry and Physics

Tools and Instruments