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Four men are protected by a net structure as they look away from the camera toward a drone flying in a large high-ceilinged room with street signs on the walls.

Drones in Disaster Zones: How Advanced 3D Mapping Technology Can Help First Responders Save Lives

January 6, 2025

Megan King

NIST is working to help emergency workers have more information in a crisis by encouraging the development of advanced drones at an affordable price.

Briana Capistran wears safety glasses as she poses smiling in the lab with computers and other equipment in the background.

Speeding Up the Wheels of Justice: How NIST Resources Can Help Crime Labs Work Faster

December 4, 2024

Briana Capistran

Forensic science is not as easy as it looks on TV. But NIST resources are helping crime labs examine evidence more efficiently — so the justice system can work better for everyone.

Side-by-side photos show Mei Lee Ngan disguised with a wig, moustache and makeup (left) and as her normal, smiling self (right).

Facing the Facts to Keep Our Biometrics Secure

September 24, 2024

Mei Lee Ngan

As facial recognition has become more common — from opening your smartphone to identifying yourself at a national border — NIST’s work in facial recognition has become more high-stakes.

A person in a baseball cap and face mask stands at a computer surrounded by scientific equipment, including a curving black plastic tube.

NIST Partnership Helps Communities Manage Unknown Dangers in Common Street Drugs

February 28, 2023

Edward Sisco

When you buy a medication at a pharmacy, you know what’s in it. When someone buys street drugs, they have no idea what they’re really getting.

Team image of ARCC at the NIST PSCR 2021 First Responder UAS 3.1: FastFind Stage 3 Live Demonstration

It Takes a (Worldwide) Village to Improve Drone Technology for First Responders

October 17, 2022

Terese Manley

The research continues because the need continues.

a collage including images of a radio tower, a handheld radio, a fire engine, and the word Connection

How 9/11 Changed Me and First Responder Communications

August 11, 2021

Dereck Orr

If you remember Sept. 11, 2001, that day is most likely imprinted on your mind like no other day. You remember what you were doing and who you were with. You may remember feeling confused and a sense of utter disbelief as you watched the results of the first plane’s impact on 1 World Trade Center

collage showing rubble from the collapse of the towers, a mock up of a section of the towers, scientists looking at structural steel and the words Building and Fire Codes

20 Years Later: NIST's World Trade Center Investigation and Its Legacy

August 5, 2021

S. Shyam Sunder

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the worst-ever building disasters in recorded history — killing 2,749 people. More than 400 emergency responders were among those killed, the largest loss of life for this group in a

John Butler in his lab in front of a computer monitor with graphics on it

DNA Mixture Interpretations: A Q&A With NIST’s John Butler

July 22, 2021

Whether from skin cells, saliva, semen or blood, DNA from a crime scene is often collected and tested in a lab to see if a suspect’s DNA is likely a contributor to that sample or not. But every DNA sample tells a different story, and some samples are easier to interpret than others. The simplest

woman in a plaid shirt using a set of VR goggles and hand controls, a man sits at a computer in the background

Passing Photons Through Chicken, VR for First Responders, and 3D-Printed Metal: A Sample of Stories on NIST Social Media

June 7, 2021

Riley Wilson

Sending “spooky” pairs of photons through biological materials, using virtual reality to test emergency communications technology, bolstering confidence in the latest manufacturing techniques — NIST has no shortage of exciting developments, despite our largely remote workforce at the moment. Here

Supporting Mobile Public Safety Broadband Using Drone-Borne Networks

April 1, 2021

Maxwell Maurice

Working outside is always a highlight for me at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It happens more often than you might think, and probably earlier in the day, too. Last month I drove out to Fort Collins, Colorado, at 5 in the morning to conduct some measurements for my

How the JFK Assassination Bullets Were Digitally Preserved at NIST

April 13, 2020

Robert M. Thompson

They were long, round-nosed rifle bullets. Their copper metal jackets had the dull color of a worn penny, giving testimony to their age. The gun-barrel rifling impressions on their sides were typical of a bullet fired from a military weapon: four grooves and the resulting ridges called lands — all

Human DNA Standard: A Q&A With NIST’s Becky Steffen

July 15, 2019

Becky Steffen

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 be related to the crime. Then you can try to generate a DNA profile from that evidence. That is a genetic fingerprint, and no two people

Woman standing in a lab holds a rectangular radiation detector near a metal globe that has been painted with a radiation symbol

Defending Against Nuclear and Radioactive Threats: A Q&A with NIST's Leticia Pibida

May 8, 2019

Leticia Pibida

Leticia Pibida, a physicist in the Radiation Physics Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been chosen as a finalist for a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, an award for federal employees given by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. The honor

Tom Bruno with an instrument inside a small suitcase. He holds a tube coming from the suitcase inside a paint can.

Judging the Quality of Forensic Evidence

January 23, 2018

Tom Bruno

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, so it’s not a giant leap to actually teach courses on what we do, though it’s perhaps a little more challenging to teach people about

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

three weapons on a blue checked background

Women’s Body Armor: Staying Ahead of the Curves

August 1, 2016

Jennifer Huergo

As I peer into the cardboard box NIST researcher Amanda Forster holds out for me, I can’t help thinking that this mild-mannered materials scientist has an impressive collection of shivs. The handmade prison weapons include a ballpoint pen with a razor embedded in the shaft and a toothbrush

Building a Firearms Toolmark Database

July 22, 2016

Xiaoyu Alan Zheng

Although they are mass produced, every firearm is unique, and when fired, they leave unique markings called toolmarks on the bullet and cartridge casing. Law enforcement agencies have used these “fingerprints” to match firearms with bullets as part of their criminal investigations for more than a

Magnifying glass magnifying a part of a DNA molecule

From Fiction to Forensics: An Inspired Story for National DNA Day

April 25, 2016