NIST News

The Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the agency's primary private-sector advisory group, has sent its 2007 Annual … more

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute (NIST/University of Maryland) have developed a new method for creating pairs of entangled … more

On March 11, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Acting Director James Turner testified before the committees of the Senate and House on the President’s proposed FY 2009 … more

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have set the stage for building the “evolutionary link” between the microelectronics of today built from … more

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has voted for U.S. approval of a modified version of the proposed international standard known as Office … more

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) fire protection engineers turned an abandoned New York City (NYC) brick high-rise into a seven-story fire laboratory last month to better … more

Recent research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated that thin films made of “metamaterials”—manmade composites engineered to … more

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a new optical method that can detect individual neutrons and record them over … more

An atomic clock that uses an aluminum atom to apply the logic of computers to the peculiarities of the quantum world now rivals the world’s most accurate clock, based on a single mercury … more

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking public comments on its proposed regulations (rule) for operating the Technology Innovation … more

Heart of the orthogonal tracking microscope system developed at NIST is this nanoparticle solution sample well etched in silicon. Careful orientation of the silicon crystal makes it … more

In response to the electronics industry’s rallying cry of “smaller and faster,” the next breakthroughs in the electronics size barrier are likely to come from … more

Ultracold atoms moving through a carefully designed arrangement of laser beams will jiggle slightly as they go, two NIST scientists have predicted.* If observed, this never-before-seen … more

Since the advent of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in the 1930s, that instrument and its many and diverse descendents—including atomic force, scanning tunneling, confocal and … more

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Web site offers easy access to reports of NIST fire investigations, summaries of research projects and videos of NIST fire research … more

In yet another twist on the strangeness of the nanoworld, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland-College Park have discovered that … more

Some 46 million people suffer from arthritis in the United States alone. The worst cases require painful surgeries to drill holes in and reinforce joints. Now researchers working at the National … more

A new report identifies and describes research and development priorities for the future of three critical, high-tech U.S. manufacturing areas—hydrogen energy technologies, … more

Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (a partnership of the National Institute of Standards and … more

A new report published today identifies and describes research and development priorities for the future of three critical, high-tech U.S. manufacturing areas – hydrogen energy … more

Robert Celotta, Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), announced the selection of Lloyd J. Whitman to be the … more

Comparison Yields Best Results Yet in Tests for Change in 'Constants' of Nature BOULDER, Colo.- An atomic clock that uses an aluminum atom to apply the logic of computers to the peculiarities of … more

Business executives, entrepreneurs, investors and government researchers and development officials interested in commercializing recent research advances in nanoelectronics, nanofabrication and … more

Visitors to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Web site can view a video that portrays NIST’s construction of an encasement for the1507 Waldseemüller Map, … more

A popular chemical database distributed in printed form for 65 years by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is now available online. The NIST/TRC Thermodynamic Tables, … more

Miniature magnetic sensors made at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have won a spot on Technology Review’s annual list of 10 technologies “most likely … more

Buildings account for 40 percent of the energy consumed within the United States and a similar percentage of carbon dioxide emissions. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) … more

Using an unusual spectroscopic technique, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have provided the most convincing evidence yet that current is flowing through a … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking public comments on a proposed new program to accredit testing laboratories that evaluate biometrics-based identification … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has submitted to Congress the annual report of activities under the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act, which authorizes the … more

NIST is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to quantify the dangers of improperly used gasoline-powered portable generators and to evaluate possible technical … more

Douglas Montgomery and Stephen Quinn, two computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have been named to this year’s “Federal … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has delivered a three-year plan for its programs to Congress, as required by the America COMPETES Act passed in August 2007. The plan … more

A new chair and vice chair have been elected to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), the agency’s primary … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has produced a DVD of a presentation that Nobel laureate William Phillips, a physicist at NIST, gave about the science of cold temperatures … more

A next-generation atomic clock that tops previous records for accuracy in clocks based on neutral atoms has been demonstrated by physicists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of … more

Five years ago on Feb. 20, 2003, pyrotechnics lit during a concert at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., started a rapidly spreading fire that caused the deaths of 100 people. Within a … more

Chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been the first to measure significant amounts of copper incorporated into zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires during fabrication. … more

The same chemicals that keep food from sticking to our frying pans and stains from setting in our carpets are damaging the livers and impairing the immune systems of loggerhead turtles—an … more

Exhale on a cold winter day and you will see the water vapor coming out of your mouth. Light up your breath with a Nobel-Prize-related tool, and you could potentially detect trace amounts of over … more

A super-sensitive mini-sensor developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can detect nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in tiny samples of fluids flowing through a novel … more

A simple surface treatment technique demonstrated by a collaboration between researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Penn State and the University of Kentucky … more

Immunohistochemical detection of HER2 cancer biomarker with IgY antibody and quantum dots is demonstrated in these samples of breast cancer cells from a patient with normal HER2 … more

An interagency subcommittee of the White House's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) issued a draft document today that lists recommended standards to enable government agencies to … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a second draft of a proposed standards profile to support the implementation of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) by … more

Companies interested in participating in international advanced manufacturing research and development can learn about new collaboration opportunities offered by the Intelligent Manufacturing … more

A new Web site launched by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can help federal information systems managers maintain the security of their systems by providing a list of … more

On Feb. 1, 2008, the governments of the United States, Brazil and the European Union (EU)—the world’s major producers of biofuels—released an analysis of current … more

A new ASTM International standard for urban search and rescue robots and components tackles humble logistics problems that, left unsolved, could hamper the use of life-saving robots in major … more

One of the immediate applications of carbon nanotubes (CNT) is as an additive to polymers to create electrically conducting plastics—a relatively low CNT concentration can dramatically … more

A new NIST initiative is intended to develop tools for measuring the health, safety, and environmental impacts of nanomaterials. Shown here is a carbon nanotube on the hair of an ant's … more

Budget table Washington, D.C.— President George W. Bush’s fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget proposal submitted today to Congress for the Commerce Department’s National … more

©Shutterstock The governments of the United States, Brazil and the European Union (EU)—the world’s major producers of biofuels—today released an analysis … more

Establishing trust in Internet transactions is a mutual process between user and service provider. In bank transactions, for example, customers want to be sure that their browser is taking them to … more

Radio station WWVH in Hawaii, operated since 1948 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to broadcast time, frequency and other announcements, recently powered up innovative … more

A nonphotorealistic image from a computer simulation showing 2,025 rocks. Rocks with high stress values are colored solid and have their stress values painted on the surface. The remaining … more

Efforts to create a “hydrogen economy” to reduce U.S. oil imports will get a boost from a new laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that will … more

Blood coursing through vessels, lubricated cartilage sliding against joints, ink jets splashing on paper—living and nonliving things abound with fluids meeting solids. However important … more

Air-source heat pumps typically deliver 1 1/2 to three times more heating energy to a home than the electric energy they consume. This is possible because heat pumps move heat rather than convert … more

Quantum dots—tiny, intense, tunable sources of colorful light—are illuminating new opportunities in biomedical research, cryptography and other fields. But these semiconductor … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first reference standards for nanoscale particles targeted for the biomedical research community—literally … more

Representatives of standards making bodies, corporate officials and educators from around the world will meet Feb. 21-22, 2008, at the “Global Perspectives and Strategies for Education … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is sponsoring a one-day workshop on security standards for … more

For more than a century, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has partnered with industry, academia and government to build an advanced science and technology … more

Engineers and researchers designing and building new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) can benefit from a new test method developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) … more

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first reference standards for nanoscale particles targeted for the biomedical research community—literally … more

Enhancing trade between the United States and the nations of the European Union (EU) while helping ensure the safety and quality of goods sold in both markets is the goal of a collaborative … more

A new report* from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows that investment in measurement science has and will continue to have a dramatic effect on innovation, … more

Broadway stars have understudies. Now, an increasingly popular radioactive isotope has its own stand-in. Developed in part by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology … more

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a novel technique for measuring the roughness of surfaces that is casting doubt on the accuracy of current … more