NIST: The Common Denominator
© John Earle |
Manufacturing.
Health care. Science and technology. Safety and security.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) is delivering results and making a difference in all
these areas and many
more essential to U.S. prosperity.
For more
than a century, NIST has helped to lay the foundation for
the innovation,
economic growth, and quality of life that
Americans have come to expect. NIST technology, measurements,
and standards help U.S. industry invent and manufacture superior
products reliably, provide critical services, ensure a fair
marketplace for consumers and businesses, and promote acceptance
of U.S. products in foreign markets. As industrial and national
priorities change, NIST responds to the nation’s most
critical and emerging needs. This brochure provides a sample
of recent and long-term results from NIST programs.
|
Projects
involving about 1,700 researchers from around
the world depend on NIST’s world-class
neutron beam facilities each year to study topics such
as advanced fuel cells.
|
Economic Growth
 NIST
staff respond to almost 6,000 requests for standards-related
information
annually from exporters and U.S. industry in general.
NIST’s automated Export Alert! service on a daily
basis selectively notifies subscribers of regulatory
changes proposed
by any of more than 130 nations worldwide. These changes
cover 25 industry sectors and encompass 90 percent
of world trade.
In addition, NIST staff participate in more than 100
private-sector standards organizations to help U.S.
industry develop voluntary
standards and encourage
international acceptance of these standards. The result
is greater acceptance of U.S. products by other countries.
 |
In
one of many nanotechnology projects, NIST scientists
are fabricating magnetic traps to improve manipulation
and analysis of single strands of DNA or RNA. |
The
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, managed by NIST,
recognizes
and promotes quality and performance excellence
in manufacturing, service, small business, education, and health
care. Benefits to the U.S. economy have been estimated at almost
$25 billion, a benefit-to-cost ratio of 207 to 1. The first
winner in the health care category, SSM Health Care (SSMHC),
operates 21
acute care hospitals and three nursing homes in four midwestern
states. The
organization meets market challenges while improving the quality
of compassionate
health care. SSMHC annually commits
a minimum of 25 percent of the previous year’s net operating
margin to serve patients who cannot pay.
| NIST
helps state and local officials and industry develop
standards for weights and measures that underpin more
than $5 trillion in sales of goods and services. |
More
than 240 new technologies have been commercialized to date
as
innovative
products, processes, or services thanks
to funding support from NIST’s Advanced Technology Program
(ATP). Successful ATP projects help to transform new science
into new industries. For instance, Hybrid Plastics Inc. (Fountain
Valley, Calif.) used ATP co-funding to simplify, redesign,
and lower the cost by 100-fold of a process for making unique,
nanoscale materials that are
finding use in new families of lightweight, durable, heat-resistant,
and environmentally friendly plastics. When incorporated into
traditional plastics, these materials are improving the performance
of a wide range of products from dental adhesives to flame-retardant
components
in military ships.
Health
Care
 Cholesterol
tests were once off by as much as 23 percent, resulting in
many
patients either receiving unnecessary treatment
or not getting treatment they needed. Uncertainty in cholesterol
tests has been cut to about 3 percent today, in part because
NIST Standard Reference Materials® now are used by manufacturers
and clinical labs to calibrate analytical instruments. NIST
produces more than 60 clinical chemistry standards and continues
to develop new ones; the latest include a standard for measuring
amounts of a protein used to diagnose a heart attack and estimate
the amount of damage.
Materials
invented at NIST stimulate healing. A plaster-like cement
that promotes
bone regrowth is being used to repair
cranial defects; more than $30 million in commercial products
based on the NIST material have been sold. In addition, “smart” composites
shown in laboratory studies to encourage tooth repair are being
readied for clinical trials; they will be used initially as
adhesive cements to minimize decay under orthodontic braces.
These are just two of many innovations inspired by a 75-year
NIST partnership with the American Dental Association. Others
include the high-speed dental drill and panoramic X-ray machine.
| Every
year, NIST standards help to assure the safety and
effectiveness of about 10 million diagnostic and treatment
procedures that use radioactive materials. |
Software
developed by NIST is improving the quality of information
systems, as well as security of patient data, at the Veterans
Administration’s approximately 170 hospitals. One NIST
tool enables secure remote access to hospital servers. Another
one allows users to access systems that span multiple organizations
without reauthenticating their identities. In addition, a
system was developed to issue “smart cards” for
patient identification; the system currently manages 30,000
cards, a number expected to increase 10-fold.
Safety & Security
Photo by Kelly Talbott |
NIST
structural experts are examining about 250 pieces of
steel from the World Trade Center site as part of an
investigation
into the building collapses on
Sept. 11, 2001.
|
Since
the anthrax bioterror events of October 2001, NIST has helped
to ensure that mail sent to certain government offices
is properly irradiated to kill potential anthrax spores. As
members of a White House task force, NIST physicists certified
that two commercial facilities using high-energy electron sources
could sterilize letter-sized mail effectively. They helped
to determine what dose of radiation would be adequate to kill
anthrax without damaging most mail items. NIST also helped
certify the application of X-rays to sanitize parcel mail,
which cannot be decontaminated with electrons.
About
500 engineers, academic researchers, and fire officials around
the world use a NIST computational model to understand,
prevent, and minimize building fires. NIST is using it in an
investigation into the collapse of three World Trade Center
buildings during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to
study how building geometry, fuel distribution, and wind conditions
affected smoke and fire flows. A simulation of a fire in a
Washington, D.C., townhouse helped investigators understand
why two firefighters died and led to procedural changes intended
to save the lives of emergency responders.
| A
NIST database containing chemical “fingerprints” for
more than 140,000 compounds is widely used in instruments
that quickly detect hazardous substances. |
More
than 2,700 law enforcement officers have been saved from
potentially fatal or disabling injuries by ballistic-resistant
body armor (often incorrectly called bullet-proof vests)
that meets standards established by NIST. Other NIST
support for law enforcement includes the first national standard
for stab resistance of personal body armor. Government agencies
have purchased more than 24,000 stab-resistant vests that comply
with the NIST-developed standard since its release in 2000.
Stab and slash attacks are the primary threat to officers working
in correctional
facilities such as prisons and are a serious secondary threat
to police officers.
Helping
Manufacturers & Service Providers
 |
NIST
computer scientists write software that enables chemists
and physicists to immerse themselves in 3-D data to
gain new insight into the behavior of diverse materials.
|
NIST’s
Manufacturing Extension Partnership is a network of nearly
400 assistance
centers that serve all 50 states and
Puerto Rico. MEP-affiliated centers have provided small companies
with more than 165,000 services. For example, MEP centers have
helped firms select a new information system to manage materials
for smallpox vaccine production, implement lean manufacturing
to help meet a large order for metal detectors for the
Salt Lake City Olympic Games, and find a qualified contractor
to conduct impact tests on concrete barriers needed for homeland
security. In a survey conducted in fiscal year 2003, more than
3,800 companies reported that MEP services helped them increase
sales by $743 million, realize $530 million in cost savings,
invest
$743
million
in
modernization,
and create or retain more than 32,000 jobs.
The
automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, and tool and die industries
are
saving millions of dollars a year by using a suite of international
standards that reduce problems in the exchange of digital product
information. NIST has provided leadership and direction in
the standards-setting process, accelerating development and
adoption of the standards while enhancing quality and reducing
costs. During Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.’s bid to
supply machined parts for four Air Force fighter programs— involving
over 2,500 part numbers and 50 potential suppliers—use
of these standards reduced the suppliers’ costs by $7.7
million annually and resulted in a 95 percent reduction in
Lockheed’s document preparation
costs.
| NIST
produces about 1,300 Standard Reference Materials® (SRMs)
to help manufacturers ensure quality for food,
chemicals, and other products. About 350 SRMs are
used by automakers alone. |
A
NIST software program called Expect, available free on NIST’s
Web site, enables users to quickly automate and test interactive
computer applications. MCI found that Expect greatly improved
the efficiency and quality of a network installation for a
financial institution with 1,850 branch locations. In the past,
engineers had to manually perform more than 60 tests to ensure
the network was functioning properly. Expect is credited with
reducing engineering time per site by 47 minutes, saving about
1,450 hours of work on the project.
Science & Technology
 |
World-leading NIST research on quantum computing and
communications includes a recent demonstration of a device
that can count about 20,000 photons (the smallest units
of light) per second. |
NIST
designed and operates an atomic clock that is one of the
two most accurate clocks in the world: It will neither
gain nor lose a second in 30 million years. NIST is the timing
reference for activities such as network synchronization in
long-distance telecommunications, which demands accuracy to
within 100 billionths of a second. Many billions of dollars
of electronic financial trans-actions each working day also
depend on NIST time for accurate timestamping.
A
powerful technique for analyzing damaged or degraded DNA,
based on a concept developed by a NIST chemist, has enabled
the identification of some victims of the World Trade Center
attack who could not be identified with conventional procedures.
The technique reduces the size of DNA fragments needed for
a positive identification. The laborious effort to match bone
and tissue remains from the site with DNA samples provided
by relatives of presumed victims is the largest DNA identification
effort ever undertaken. The techniques developed in this effort
have potential applications for other tough forensic cases
and for identification of remains by the military.
| Computers
around the globe receive official world time from NIST’s
Internet time service nearly 1 billion times every
day. |
Ultrafast
computers and secure communications networks of the future
may rely
on components designed today by NIST researchers,
who are among the world leaders in quantum computing and
communications. NIST physicists have demonstrated the building
blocks for a
computer based on laser-cooled ions in electromagnetic traps,
including the first quantum “logic gate” and long-duration
memory. A quantum computer might be built out of many small,
interconnected ion traps. Five of this research group’s
recent papers, published in the journal Nature since 2000,
have been cited in other publications a total of more than
440 times.
Fast NIST Facts
Founded:
1901
Locations: Gaithersburg, Md.,
and Boulder, Colo.
Staff: About 3,000 employees,
1,600 visiting researchers annually
Budget: $864 million
Notable honors: Nobel prizes
in physics, 1997 and 2001; National Historic Chemical Landmark,
2001; National Medal of Science,
1998; Emmy Award, 1980
To
receive a paper copy of this brochure, please contact inquiries@nist.gov |
