Energy
and Environment
ublic support
for science dwindled in the late 1960s and early 1970s, perhaps
in part because of the financial drain of the Vietnam War and the
growing perception that science could not cure many social problems.
Scientists, therefore, had to become more active and skilled in
convincing funding sources that their research was socially relevant
and worthwhile.
Much of NIST's
work during this time directly affected the public. At the behest
of the Congress, for instance, the Institute undertook a comprehensive
study of the metric system and published A Metric America, which
recommended a policy of voluntary conversion. President Gerald Ford
signed the policy into law in 1975; the U.S. government continues
to encourage a voluntary changeover. NIST also prepared an impartial
method for the draft lottery of July 1970, influencing which of
America's young people would enter military service. Public safety
was a driving concern: NIST helped investigate a number of major
disasters, from a Texas tornado to a California earthquake, and
provided technical support for the new Consumer Product Safety Commission,
studying everything from the flammability of sleeping bags to children's
capabilities to push, pull, and twist toys in harmful ways.
NIST also applied
basic research knowledge to solve practical problems. Research in
acoustics, begun years earlier, was applied to non-destructive methods
for detecting flaws in materials and structures. In acoustic emissions
technology, transient microscopic vibrations of a structure such
as a highway bridge are monitored to anticipate the potential failure
of critical components. To overcome the difficult challenge of detecting
pulses that last only a microsecond, NIST reduced the problem to
three essential elements, each of which was then solved. The staff
developed a standard acoustic emission source that became widely
used, a predictive analytic computer code for wave propagation in
materials, and a high-fidelity sensor that accurately measured emissions.
As always, NIST
provided calibration services to hundreds of firms, not only doing
the work but also showing others how to do it themselves. For instance,
an Institute scientist showed a state metrologist how $500 worth
of off-the-shelf equipment, coupled with radio signals from NIST
radio station WWV, could be used to calibrate the tuning forks needed
to check the accuracy of police radar equipment.
Meanwhile, basic
research in fields such as physics and surface science enabled NIST
to maintain and enhance the technical competence needed to carry
out multiple missions and provide the measurement foundation for
technological innovation.
NIST research
in atomic physics centered around the use of laser light to cool
and trap various particles. The first proposal for cooling atomic
ions (atoms possessing a net electrical charge) was made in 1975
by scientists including one from NIST, who, concurrently with another
team, reported the first successful demonstration of this effect
in 1978. By the mid-1980s, two other Institute scientists demonstrated
different techniques for cooling, or slowing, atoms (which are neutral
and therefore pose different challenges), a prerequisite for trapping
them. All of this work was motivated initially by fundamental scientific
needs and drives, but, as noted at the time, it was easy to imagine
that unforeseen uses might arise. Indeed, this research led to a
Nobel Prize in physics for a NIST scientist and a variety of practical
applications (see Laser Cooling and
Trapping Win Nobel Prize).
Much of NIST's
time during this era was taken up with research on energy and environmental
problems, largely in response to the oil embargo of 1973 and a batch
of environmental legislation as well as growing public support for
protection of the environment. The first Earth Day was held in 1970.
Several years later, it was estimated that the United States would
spend more than $190 billion over the next 10 years to attain federal
standards for air and water quality. NIST was a key player in the
environmental movement because pollutant concentrations had to be
measured accurately.
Among its energy
conservation projects, NIST published design and evaluation criteria
for new buildings. The publication served as the technical basis
for industry's first major voluntary consensus standard for energy
conservation in new buildings. A consultant's evaluation found that
this new standard would reduce energy consumption by as much as
59 percent in some buildings. A study covering the time period 1975
to 1984 found that NIST's contribution to the energy cost savings
in single-family houses due to the industry standard was $919 million
in 1975 dollars ($2.6 billion in 1995 dollars)-many times more than
the cost of the program. In a separate project, NIST developed testing
and rating procedures for all major energy-consuming equipment in
residential buildings to support the development of national efficiency
standards by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Environmental
research spanned air, water, soil, and living organisms. A portable
meter was designed to detect a broad range of electromagnetic interference
with twice the sensitivity of previous devices; it could be used
to assess the emissions of appliances and maintain safe exposure
levels for industrial workers. Various devices were developed to
measure pollutants such as those from automobile emissions. A computer
model was written to help allocate fish catches in a river system;
the model provided a detailed analysis of the economic and biological
effects of changes in the salmon fishery regulations.
© Robert Rathe |
A
container of tissue samples is removed from storage in NIST's
biomonitoring specimen bank, used for monitoring long-term pollution
and health trends. |
In another area
of enviromental concern, NIST introduced Standard Reference Materials
to help gauge radioactive contamination of the environment, the
first and still leading international effort of this type. NIST
also created a biomonitoring specimen bank in cooperation with the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thousands of specimens, ranging
from marine mussels to human livers, were preserved in liquid nitrogen
and then analyzed to measure changes in exposure to chemicals and
pollutants over time. As the tissue banking activities expanded
to encompass a broad range of environmental samples, Insti-tute
scientists established standard protocols and practices for proper
handling of environmental samples. These procedures, as practiced
by environmental labs around the world, help ensure the quality
and reliability of environmental measures.
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(New Directions)
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Date created:
11/2/00
Last updated: 11/6/00
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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