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Taking Measure Blog Posts

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Displaying 26 - 50 of 86
Woman with a ball cap on petting a reclining cheetah with another cheetah in the background the

Eavesdropping on Hormones to Help Understand Reproduction

July 16, 2021
Erin Legacki
Every vertebrate on the planet has evolved a complex system that uses small molecules called hormones to communicate directives to isolated tissues that impact everything in the body from eating to producing babies. This hormonal communication between tissues is critical during reproductive
masked man with baseball cap seated at a lab bench pipetting samples

Improving Forensic Chemistry: A Q&A With NIST's Ed Sisco

April 28, 2021
Ed Sisco has been a research chemist within the Surface and Trace Chemical Analysis Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2014. His research has focused on chemical identification systems for forensics, homeland security and other applications. Ed is a finalist for
Callie Higgins in a lab. She is standing in front of a reflective screen surrounding an atomic force microscope.

3D Printing With Light: A Q&A With NIST's Callie Higgins

April 28, 2021
Callie Higgins is a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She studies a special branch of additive manufacturing called vat photopolymerization, which uses light to solidify a liquid resin layer by layer into a 3D object. Callie is a finalist for a
a person dispensing hand sanitizer into their hand

NIST Lends a Hand to Hand-Sanitizer Manufacturers

March 12, 2021
William A. MacCrehan
Like everyone on the planet, our organization, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), became concerned with the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020. NIST scientists were anxious to provide any assistance they could to support COVID response efforts. As we were thinking of ways we
Josephson voltage standard chip with penny for scale

From 1901 to 2021: Measurements Then and Now

February 25, 2021
Mark Esser
A lot has changed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the past 120 years. For one thing, we were known as the National Bureau of Standards for the first 87 years of our existence. Then, in 1988, we became the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to
cartoon of a young woman at her desk speaking by webcam with another person.

The NIST Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program Goes Virtual

January 27, 2021
Brandi Toliver
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) designed the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program to inspire undergraduate students to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through a unique research experience that supports our mission
a collage of images. The number "2020" is surrounded by images of NIST staff George Gibson, Matt Staymates and Yamali Hernandez, a poster for the movie "The Last Artifact," an image of bikers racing up a hill, and a rifle bullet in a glass vial.

Need Some Good News? NIST’s 2020 Highlights

December 16, 2020
Mark Esser
2020 has been a challenging year, but we at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have worked as hard as we can to fulfill our mission for the American people: to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in
NIST Charleston researchers Ashley Boggs-Russell (sitting) and Amanda Moors (standing) work with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Mammal Foundation to process tissue samples during veterinary assessments of wild bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. No dolphins were harmed in this process.

Tracking Hormones on Land and at Sea

September 22, 2020
Ashley Boggs
It’s usually pretty straightforward to explain how my work on clinical measurements is a benefit to society, but sometimes I get confused looks when I tell people about my work on whales, alligators and fish, to name a few. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I work on
Andras Vladar in a white gown, hairnet and mask with a scanning electron microscope.

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

June 9, 2020
Heather Evans
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 relationships. How’d that happen? First off, my office — the Program Coordination Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Tytus Mak sitting at his desk and while colleague Arun Moorthy and he look at a computer screen

Shaping the Future of the NIST Mass Spectral Library

June 9, 2020
Tytus Mak
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 most scientists’. But that’s true for most of the seemingly esoteric things that many of us at the National Institute of Standards and
a cartoon robot in a lab moving beakers full of orange liquid

How Robots Could Teach Us to Trust AI

April 16, 2020
Jason Hattrick-Simpers
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 autocompletes our most pressing questions in search engines. Modern AIs are powerful machines, ingesting reams of data and outputting useful
Hae-Jeong Lee speaks into a microphone as a student stands beside her

Women in STEM: Igniting Young Minds, Illuminating the Future

March 16, 2020
Hae-Jeong Lee
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 Embassy Science Fellow in the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. The U.S. Department of State’s Office of Science and Technology Cooperation
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

November 25, 2019
Mark Esser
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 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Taking Measure blog to get their metrological fix, and we couldn’t be more pleased. Thank you
smiling man with a red baseball cap and white lab coat on in a laboratory full of instruments

Reflections on Growing Up Gay and the Solace of Science

June 26, 2019
Wyatt Vreeland
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, but we always had enough food to eat and always had a roof over our heads. On the occasional summer weekend, my parents would scrape