Taking Measure

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5 pictures: Woman in quantum sensor lab, man with bullet and microscope, woman in SRM lab, man starring at camera, woman at robotics lab

Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

Woman with a ball cap on petting a reclining cheetah with another cheetah in the background the

Eavesdropping on Hormones to Help Understand Reproduction

July 21, 2021

Erin Legacki

Every vertebrate on the planet has evolved a complex system that uses small molecules called hormones to communicate directives to isolated tissues that impact everything in the body from eating to

masked man in a white lab coat holding up a frozen container in a laboratory

Creating a PFAS-Contaminated Meat SRM: A Q&A With NIST Chemists Melissa Phillips and Ben Place

June 23, 2021

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research chemists Melissa Phillips and Ben Place are working to create a Standard Reference Material (SRM) to help industry and regulators detect

three figures survey reference data on their computer screen while looking on at a turbine

50 Years of the ‘Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data’: A Q&A With Editors Allan Harvey and Don Burgess

June 16, 2021

Reference data’s connection to the public is indirect yet often very important. For example, a town’s electricity could come from a steam power plant in which reference data for the properties of

woman in a plaid shirt using a set of VR goggles and hand controls, a man sits at a computer in the background

Passing Photons Through Chicken, VR for First Responders, and 3D-Printed Metal: A Sample of Stories on NIST Social Media

June 9, 2021

Riley Wilson

Sending “spooky” pairs of photons through biological materials, using virtual reality to test emergency communications technology, bolstering confidence in the latest manufacturing techniques — NIST

see through human body with organs on the left with an arrow pointing to a schematic of the body cube, represented by a CAD drawing with some multicolor inlaid chips that culture cells for different organs

Creating and Commercializing a Human ‘Body Cube’ for Testing New Drugs

May 28, 2021

Mandy Esch

Growing up, I always had a love for living things, so I went off to college and got an undergraduate degree in biology. After that, I realized I wanted to specialize in an area that could help people

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About this blog

Taking Measure is the official blog of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

It provides a behind-the-scenes look at NIST’s research and programs, covering a broad range of science and technology areas. Through this blog, NIST’s researchers and staff will share why they do what they do and how today’s research will lead to tomorrow’s innovations.

The views presented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of NIST.

If you have any questions about our blog, please contact us at takingmeasure [at] nist.gov.