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Taking Measure Blog Posts

Physics

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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 27, 2019
Savelas Rabb
A few months ago, in November 2018, I experienced one of the most significant moments in my scientific career—the international ceremony ratifying the redefinition of the kilogram, mole and two other base units of the Système International d'Unités, or SI, in Versailles, France. My colleague Bob
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
a gold chip with electrodes attached to either side inside a chamber lit with purple light

Quantum Information Science: A Q&A With NIST's Carl Williams

September 13, 2018
Quantum information science will contribute to one of the next revolutions in computing, but realizing that promise will stretch our scientific understanding and technological skills to their limits. We sat down with NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory Acting Director Carl Williams to get his take
an apple tree standing in a courtyard with the sun streaming through its leaves

The Tangled Tale of NIST’s Newton Apple Tree

June 20, 2018
Mark Esser
Retired West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, himself the scion of a long and storied family tree, is among those to whom the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has bestowed a scion of a different sort: a clone of an apple tree that was growing next to the house in Lincolnshire
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
Scott Glancy, a sandy blonde-haired Caucasian man with blue eyes, standing in his office wearing a black T-shirt that reads "Quantum physics: The Dreams Stuff is Made of

Local Realism, Bell’s Inequality, and T-Shirts: An Entangled Tale

April 26, 2018
Scott Glancy
For this past Christmas my wife, Rebecca, gave me a T-shirt that says "Quantum mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of." This is an allusion to the book The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics— and How They Shook the Scientific World, edited by the late Stephen
aerial view of the oil tanker Byron D. Benson ablaze after a U-boat attack

The Big Inch: Fueling America’s WWII War Effort

March 23, 2018
Keith Martin
If you drive north from NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus, you will soon reach the famed Mason-Dixon Line marking the border between the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Continue for just a few more kilometers and you’ll cross over a second historic line: the Inch Line (sometimes called the
black and white photo of a 1920s weights and measures inspector checking the accuracy of a grocery store scale using test weights

Back to Basics: Weights and Measures Week 2018

March 6, 2018
Tina Butcher
Happy Weights and Measures Week 2018! What’s “Weights and Measures Week,” you might ask? That’s the week set aside every year to commemorate the signing of the first weights and measures law by President John Adams on March 2, 1799. Unless you love history, you’re probably thinking, “Boring! That
Paulina Kuo in her laser lab

It’s All Right to Be Wrong in Science

January 29, 2018
Paulina Kuo
I am a scientist. I am often wrong, and that’s okay. You may have heard about major errors in science and engineering that made the news headlines, like the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, aka “ Galloping Gertie,” or the 1999 crash of the Mars Climate Orbiter. Or maybe you’ve seen the recent
kate Ross holds a long pole used to put samples in front of a beam of neutrons in the main hall at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.

The Frustrated Matter of Quantum Spin Liquids

January 9, 2018
Kate Ross
There’s a pub here in Fort Collins, Colorado, that offers 100 different beers on tap. This sounds—and actually is—great, but it has a drawback. With so many different options, especially when all those choices are equally pleasing, it’s difficult to decide which one to get. This phenomenon is called
top left: circuit board; top right: materials from HHCIII; bottom left: leaf; bottom right: 3-D atomic clock

Twelve Ways NIST Is Working for You: 2017 Edition

December 29, 2017
Ben P. Stein
As managing editor in the NIST Public Affairs Office, I learn every day how our researchers tackle important societal issues in their work. As 2017 comes to a close, I’d like to share how our news during the last year has connected to many of this year’s current events. Protecting Our First
sundial in NIST Gaithersburg courtyard. The gnomon, several hour markers and the word "time" are visible.

What, Then, Is Time?

November 3, 2017
Chris Oates
When asked to contribute an essay on some aspect of timekeeping, I had a flashback to the first day of my senior year in high school in Princeton, New Jersey. In AP English, we were assigned to write a single paragraph on something, anything in motion. I made the somewhat curious—and possibly
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
Earth's ionosphere

‘W’eird Signals: Listening in on the Eclipse

August 15, 2017
Jill Nelson
Two years ago, I had never heard of the WWVB radio station. Today, it’s one of my favorites, but that’s not because it broadcasts a pleasant mix of Top 40 hits. (It doesn’t.) WWVB is a low-frequency station, operated by NIST, that provides precise time information to radio-controlled clocks across
man standing in front of a white board filled with equations. Four other men sit around a table watching.

Quantum Information: Changing the Rules of the Game

August 2, 2017
Carl Miller
I was a math researcher at the University of Michigan back in 2008 when I had the crazy—one could even say random—notion to shift from studying pure mathematics to studying quantum information science. My mentor at the time was confused by this. Why give up the field in which you have all your
MS. Ampere at the movies

More Power to You, Wonder Woman!

June 16, 2017
Ms. Ampere
First, let me say that I’m totally energized by the good press my dear acquaintance Wonder Woman has been receiving lately. It’s absolutely electrifying to see a strong woman get good publicity! And she has done some wonderful things, what with defending the world from evil-doers and all. Maybe with
mystery objects at NIST museum

Unidentified Museum Objects, Vol. I

June 14, 2017
Fran Webber
Right now, the NIST museum in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is displaying a glass globe the size of a large beach ball. When visitors first come upon it, they’re not sure what to make of it. Is it a giant lightbulb? A highly impractical fishbowl? Thankfully, they can quickly quench their curiosity by
Photo of U.S. kilogram masses

7 Ways Measurements Help You Get Around

May 19, 2017
Fran Webber
With International Firefighters’ Day behind us and World Turtle Day looming, you might not think you’ve got time for another international day in May. But don’t skip World Metrology Day, which is observed on May 20 every year—the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of the Meter in 1875. Because
X-ray test setup for bomb detection

Better Image-Quality Measurements for Bomb Squads

May 18, 2017
Jack Glover
I’ve been interested in science ever since I was a child. If you had told 8-year-old me that I was going to be a physicist, then I would have been very excited. Had you told me that my lab would be filled with a bevy of bombs, and that my typical work day might involve blasting those bombs with X
Debbie Jin in her Lab

What Debbie Jin Meant to Me

May 11, 2017
Jun Ye
NIST/JILA Fellow Debbie Jin died of cancer on Sept. 15, 2016, at the age of 47. One of the most prominent researchers at NIST, she won many science awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur (“Genius”) Fellowship in 2003 and a L’Oreal/UNESCO “For Women in Science” Award for North America
Grote Reber's Sterling, Virginia, radio telescope installation

Grote Reber, Radio Astronomer

April 18, 2017
Keith Martin
Dulles International Airport, in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., sits on land once owned by NIST. It was on this spot that NIST brought together an eclectic combination of people and projects that would help birth the field of radio astronomy. It would involve a backyard tinkerer