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Trapped in a microscopic cage made of strands of DNA, molecules of a life-saving drug course through the bloodstream of a cancer patient. Only when receptors on
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but for astronomers, simply recording images of stars and galaxies isn’t enough. To measure the true size and absolute
Cutting intricate patterns as small as several billionths of a meter deep and wide, the focused ion beam (FIB) is an essential tool for deconstructing and
Space-time ripples, exploding stars, colliding black holes …. and the National Institute of Standards and Technology? NIST doesn’t exactly come to mind when
Atoms are notoriously difficult to control. They zigzag like fireflies, tunnel out of the strongest containers and jitter even at temperatures near absolute
A new way of imaging concealed objects, devised by a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his colleagues, might take all
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have designed and built an optical device that could set a new standard for measuring
Shine a flashlight into murky pond water and the beam won’t penetrate very far. Absorption and scattering rapidly diminishes the intensity of the light beam
Five hundred million years ago, the oceans teemed with trillions of trilobites — creatures that were distant cousins of horseshoe crabs. All trilobites had a
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a potential source of error when using acoustic waves to measure the
Like a vocal coach who extends the octave range of an opera singer, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have expanded by
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have significantly improved the ability of a type of optical
Inside every cellphone lies a tiny mechanical heart, beating several billion times a second. These micromechanical resonators play an essential role in
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have revived and improved a once-reliable technique to identify and count defects in
Sneezes, rain clouds, and ink jet printers: They all produce or contain liquid droplets so tiny it would take several billion of them to fill a liter bottle
The newest generation of lithium-ion batteries now under development promises a revolution in powering cell phones, electric vehicles, laptops and myriad other
If someone sells you a luxury handbag from Paris, France, but it turns out be a forgery from Paris, Texas, the counterfeit item might cost you a thousand bucks
The natural, or resonance, frequency at which a simple harmonic oscillator vibrates reveals with exquisite sensitivity the essential properties of the physical
When it comes to a marriage with quantum theory, gravity is the lone holdout among the four fundamental forces in nature. The three others—the electromagnetic
Digital transistors – assembled by the billions in today’s computer chips – act as near-perfect electronic switches. In the “on” position, achieved when an
Conventional microscopes provide essential information about samples in two dimensions — the plane of the microscope slide. But flat is not all that. In many
For some 30 years, scientists have used superconducting materials to record the tiniest specks of light imaginable — individual photons, or single particles of
They may not be impervious to bullets like Superman, but groups of electrons that gather along the edges of some ultrathin materials have their own superpowers
From the branching pattern of leaf veins to the variety of interconnected pathways that spread the coronavirus, nature thrives on networks — grids that link the