NIST-4 Watt Balance
A high-tech version of an old-fashioned balance scale at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just brought scientists a critical step closer toward a new and improved definition of the kilogram. The […]
national metrology institutes
NPL News – Creator of the moving coil watt balance passes away
Dr Kibble worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) from 1967 to 1998 as an experimental physicist. He was instrumental in reshaping the International System of Units (SI), and is best known for his conception […]
NIST’s Million-Pound Weight Stack Restoration is Complete
It’s official: NIST’s 4.45-million newton (equivalent to one million pounds-force) deadweight machine – the largest in the world – is back in one piece after a colossal 16-month effort to overhaul the system for the […]
Head to Head: Photonic Pressure Sensors vs. Mercury-Based Standard
When a team of researchers at NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) first tested a new kind of pressure sensor two years ago, initial results showed it was faster and had higher resolution than the traditional, […]
Take F2: NIST’s Latest, Most Accurate Time Standard Debuts
April 3, 2014, BOULDER, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has officially launched a new atomic clock, called NIST-F2, to serve as a new U.S. civilian time […]
NIST Gives Astronomers a Better Ruler in the Search for Extrasolar Planets
NIST Tech Beat March 26, 2014 – Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have rejuvenated a technique for finding planets near distant stars.* New measurements of light from special lamps could […]
E.U. and U.S. to Extend Scientific Cooperation on Measurements and Standards
From: NIST’s Tech Beat July 23, 2013 The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) agreed to expand their current scientific cooperation to […]
NIST Radio Station WWVB Logs 50 Years of Innovation
NIST Tech Beat for June 25, 2013 Fifty years ago on July 5, 1963, a modest radio station in Fort Collins, Colo., officially went on the airwaves—a landmark event for U.S. industry and the American […]