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Taking Measure Blog Posts

Mass metrology

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15
Title card reads "A Scientific Christmas Tale" with the NIST logo in a wreath and flashing holiday lights.

A Scientific Christmas Tale

December 5, 2023
Robin Materese
’Twas the night before Christmas; NIST staff had gone home. Our director was left to reflect all alone. She thought about NIST and the breadth of its work, from AI to fire to even the quark.
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
Film crew films a pair NIST researchers operating the NIST Kibble balance

‘The Last Artifact’ Brings Metrology to TV

August 20, 2020
Jason Stoughton
Remember that documentary you saw that finally explained metrology and why measurements are critical to practically every aspect of modern life? Yeah, neither do I. Probably because that documentary doesn’t exist … Or does it? The Last Artifact, a new one-hour film that PBS stations are planning to
group of five men holding champagne flutes

The 'Gang of Five' and the SI Revolution

May 16, 2019
Peter Mohr
Although I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, I was never a gang member there. My gang membership came much later and in an entirely unexpected way. No, more accurately, I was a nerd who was interested in taking things apart to figure out how they worked, playing with a crystal radio, making an electric
photo of the watt balance

The Case for Building Beautiful Instruments

March 4, 2019
Stephan Schlamminger
I discovered my affinity for attractive instruments while working a job previous to my coming to NIST. My boss then had a love affair with the common hose clamp—the one with the worm gear. Whenever we had to fasten a component to an apparatus he said, “why don’t you use a hose clamp?” With every
stainless steel weights

Top NIST Images of 2018

February 6, 2019
Robin Materese
There’s nothing quite like a captivating image to make you want to learn more. And nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to sometimes hard-to-understand science. Before we all get too settled into 2019, we thought we’d take a look back at some of our best pictures from 2018. If you missed
Image of a napkin that has written on it the names of researchers involved in the project and their guesses for the value of Planck's Constant

A Massive Bet: The Planck Napkin

August 25, 2017
Jason Stoughton
So, a bunch of metrologists walk into a bar. In late December 2013, a group of NIST researchers met at the local watering hole across the street from NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus. NIST researchers meeting up after work during the holidays is a common occurrence, but this particular group
Diagram with blue background and man standing behind rope line

Ideas Whose Time Has Come (and Gone), v. 2017

December 20, 2016
Robin Materese
A catchphrase from a popular reality show goes: “One day you're in. And the next day, you're out.” For the purposes of the show, the host is referencing fashion. But the same could be said about science. With each new discovery or advance, an old theory or idea often becomes obsolete … or at least
shiny metal objects

World Metrology Day: Kilogram in the Balance

May 20, 2016
Jon Pratt
It was Monday, April 25, 2016, and I was going to meet mass experts Pat Abbott and Eddie Mulhern of NIST’s Mass and Force group as part of my frantic preparations for a 5:21 p.m. flight to Paris. Pat and Eddie were the appointed custodians of the four 1 kilogram masses that I was to transport to the