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Taking Measure Blog Posts

Nanotechnology

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Colorful letters on black background say "12 Days of Metric."

The Twelve Days of Metric

December 19, 2022
Robin Materese
As we approach the end of 2022, we wanted to share with our readers a NISTified version of a classic seasonal song about a topic that is near and dear to our scientists year-round: the wonders of the metric system.
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
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
concept illustrating the virtuous cycle of how better devices lead to better measurements which lead to better devices

The Virtuous Cycle of Making and Measuring Nanostructures

October 5, 2020
Samuel Stavis
In his 1959 lecture “ There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” Richard Feynman invited us to enter a new field of physics. He envisioned, with remarkable prescience, making, measuring and using new technology at the nanometer scale. The exact effect that his predictions had on future science is
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
George Orji using a pair of tweezers to make an adjustment to an instrument.

What To Do When Measurement Methods Produce Different Answers

April 1, 2019
George Orji
What are you looking to measure? This is one of the central questions for a metrologist (a measurement scientist) and is usually answered before measurements can proceed. It is impossible to make sense of the results without knowing the measurand—the actual physical dimension or other property of
Jabez, McClelland, Adam Steele and Brenton Knuffman pose in their lab with their cesium ion source.

An Invention in Focus: When Science Gets Real

May 24, 2018
Jabez McClelland
As a research scientist, I often face a difficult problem when discussing my work with family or friends. Everyone seems initially fascinated that I am a physicist, but if I start to talk about what I actually do, the going quickly gets tough. How do I make cold atoms and ion beams understandable
Carbon nanotubes

Carbon Nanotubular: SURFing into the Sciences

May 5, 2017
Andrew Gayle
I’m a bit of a romantic when it comes to science. When anyone asks what inspires me to be a scientist, I tell them that it’s amazing to add to the collective knowledge of humanity. NIST is the kind of place where that happens every day. Until I went to college, I had lived my whole life within a
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
Man and woman in lab gear in front of computer screen in clean room

A NanoFabulous Student Research Opportunity

July 5, 2016
Mattie Watson
If I told you my job required a hair net, a “bunny suit,” and a million-dollar piece of equipment, would you have any idea what I do? Do I sound like a mad scientist or a crazy lunch lady? If you haven’t caught on yet, I’ll give you a hint: Don’t trust the mystery meat. Just kidding! I am actually