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Material Measurement Laboratory

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Displaying 51 - 75 of 93

Experts Next Door: How a Public-Private Partnership Benefits the Regenerative Medicine Community

September 30, 2020

I’m a scientific program manager at the Standards Coordinating Body (SCB), a private nonprofit organization devoted to advancing standards for regenerative

The Rapid Microbial Testing Methods Consortium: Enabling Safe, Effective and Timely Advanced Therapies

August 26, 2020

Advanced therapies are poised to change the face of medicine, promising to cure diseases that have long resisted us. But there are many challenges to overcome

How Can NIST Help: Collaborating at a Distance to Defeat COVID-19

June 16, 2020

I’ve been working from home since March 13. But even though I’ve been remote, I am still really connected to my colleagues — and have even created some new

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

Shaping the Future of the NIST Mass Spectral Library

July 7, 2020

When one thinks of mass spectral libraries — well, let’s be honest here, the very idea of mass spectral libraries will never cross most people’s minds, even

How Robots Could Teach Us to Trust AI

April 28, 2020

The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere in our lives. It helps us pick movies to stream, recommends old friends to reconnect with, and

Addressing Measurement Challenges for Detecting Chemicals That Could Cause Cancer

April 7, 2020

For over 20 years, a class of man-made, potentially cancer-causing chemicals called PFAS have commonly been found in humans and the environment. These chemicals

Women in STEM: Igniting Young Minds, Illuminating the Future

March 19, 2020

I am a research chemist and lab officer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). From November 2019 to February 2020, I worked as an

Manufacturing Standards for Biopharmaceuticals: A Q&A With NIST’s Sheng Lin-Gibson and Vijay Srinivasan

January 28, 2020

Biopharmaceuticals, also known as biological drugs or biologics, are manufactured from living organisms or contain living organisms that have been genetically

A Step in the Right Direction: Building a Better Army Boot

February 4, 2020

Perhaps for as many as 40,000 years, people have been protecting their feet with some type of covering, initially using animal hides and fur. Today, footwear

How Neutrons and Gamma Rays Can Reveal Our Cultural Heritage

January 7, 2020

Most people think that understanding and preserving our cultural heritage is mainly the concern of the social sciences and humanities, such as archaeology and

The Vara: A Standard of Length With a Not-So-Standard History

October 11, 2019

By the 1850s, the United States had annexed nearly all of what are now its southwestern states from Mexico, and with the region, its peoples. Though the U.S

Rewritten in Our DNA: Measurements for Genome Editing

September 24, 2019

I didn’t understand what people were asking me when I was a kid. The question would come in several different forms. Sometimes it was “What are you?” Other

Before the Melting Pot: Pre-Columbian Weights and Measures

September 17, 2019

This month, we celebrate the heritage of the multitude of identities that arose from the intermingling of Spanish and indigenous American cultures. To do this

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

Reflections on Growing Up Gay and the Solace of Science

June 26, 2019

I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the mid-’70s into a blue-collar family. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a homemaker. My family was of modest means

A Winding Road: From the Hills to the Halls of NIST

June 25, 2019

My mother and father did not plan to become parents while still in high school, but they never viewed it in a negative light and soon presented me with three

The Plastic That Washes Up on Hawaii’s Beaches Affects Me. Personally.

June 5, 2019

On the occasional weekend when I find myself avoiding house chores or lacking a social event, I wear out my 3-year-old daughter at Kualoa Regional Park, only 15

Genome in a Bottle: Spelling Out DNA’s ‘Dark’ Sequences

March 13, 2019

When the Human Genome Project began 20 years ago, its consortium of researchers at 20 research institutes spent more than $1 billion to sequence that first

Chemist Savelas Rabb is bent over slightly, using a tool to check on the settings inside of a large instrument known as a mass spectrometer.

Defining Ourselves Through Science

February 28, 2019

A few months ago, in November 2018, I experienced one of the most significant moments in my scientific career—the international ceremony ratifying the

Moving Forward While Giving Back: Continuing the Cycle of Mentorship

February 26, 2019

As a kid growing up, I’d always had an interest in learning about the world we live in, from reading Zoobooks to watching the History Channel to exploring the

Blood, Sweat and Genomes: A Quest to Advance Measurement Science in Non-Model Organisms

February 12, 2019

There are currently about 5,400 different species of mammals on Earth, but this wasn’t the case until about 56 million years ago. As non-avian dinosaurs faded

a drop of water springing up from a pool

‘Day Zero’ Denied: Solving the Looming Water Crisis

June 12, 2018

“When the Well's dry, we know the Worth of Water.” —Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack In early 2018, Cape Town, South Africa, became the first major

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

Down for the Count: How NIST is Helping Defeat Cancer

September 25, 2017

Anyone who has met me knows that I’m a proud Buffalonian. Buffalo, New York, is best known for being the birthplace of “Buffalo” chicken wings, a gateway to