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NIST Overview Video Transcript (back to video)
“NIST is a great environment for doing research.” (Joannie Chin sound on tape)
“I think NIST is excellence. (Daniel Sawyer sound on tape)
“NIST is all about very smart scientists and engineers who are making measurements and standards that affect your life and my life positively every day and enable this country to be a world leader in innovation.” (Tom O’Brien sound on tape)
Welcome to NIST… the National Institute of Standards and Technology … a federal research agency working to improve the nation’s economy and quality of life.
In state-of-the-art scientific laboratories on several campuses … our scientists and engineers work side by side with industry and university researchers to create the measurements, standards and technologies that make modern products and services possible.
Cell phones, portable music players, computers, medical devices … all of the sophisticated technologies we use every day rely on NIST research.
NIST also helps small manufacturers stay competitive …
Supports the development of cutting edge technologies in areas of critical national need …
And guides organizations of all types toward improved performance.
Like the unseen girders in a skyscraper, NIST is the scientific backbone … the infrastructure … that supports U-S innovation and industrial competitiveness.
Take fuel cells for example …
Tomorrow’s cars may get their power from these pollution-free devices that combine hydrogen with oxygen to yield energy and leave behind only water.
But to get development on the fast track, researchers needed a way to look through a fuel cell’s thick metal casing … to measure its efficiency.
NIST and industry researchers solved the problem with a neutron beam imaging method that sees circulating water inside fuel cells much like a CAT scan shows blood flow in the heart.
Our scientists and engineers are helping make medical devices … like artificial hip joints … more reliable.
Using precisely machined metal templates … NIST provides surgeons with a way of calibrating their instruments right in the operating room … reducing errors and improving the fit of joint replacements.
Timekeeping also benefits from NIST expertise …
From the first NIST atomic clock in 1949 … the institute has been providing the nation’s time with ever-increasing precision.
The current NIST atomic clock would have to run for 70 million years to be off by even one second.
This amazing science helps ensure confidence in billions of dollars worth of financial transactions daily …
Allows NASA to land spacecraft on Mars …
And makes the global positioning system for advanced navigation possible.
These same atomic tools may help NIST researchers with another goal … to build a practical quantum computer.
By storing and processing data with individual atoms … quantum computers promise to solve tasks in seconds that are impossible to solve today.
In many ways, NIST’s work literally helps define our future …
Pioneering miniature “lab-on-a-chip” devices that can quickly analyze forensic DNA …
Using knowledge from a comprehensive study of the World Trade Center disaster to help improve the safety of future buildings …
And finding ways to safely exploit nanotechnologies like carbon nanotubes for super strong fibers or quantum dots for diagnosing breast cancer.
NIST is tackling the toughest research challenges. In the process, our scientists have received three Nobel Prizes in physics since 1997.
For more than a century, NIST has been the critical bridge between new knowledge and new products or services that strengthen our economy and improve our everyday lives.
Executive Producer: NIST Public and Business Affairs
Thanks to the following NIST employees for their descriptions of NIST (in order of appearance): Joannie Chin, materials research engineer; Daniel Sawyer, research mechanical engineer; Thomas O'Brian, director, NIST Boulder Laboratories.
NIST wishes to thank the following organizations for providing video footage for use in this program: Bechtel Group Inc., NASA, NOAA, General Motors, and Swedish Television.
NIST wishes to thank the following organization for providing images for use in this program: Jan Hall: AP Images / Jonas Ekstromer; Eric Cornell: AP Images / Henrik Montgomery; Bill Phillips: AP Images / Jonas Ekstromer.
NIST's mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.
The display of products and services in this program is for demonstration purposes only and does not imply an endorsement by NIST.
January 2008