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Here is a translation from your friendly Gen-Z social media team: "To be honest, NIST is underrated."

Building safety tip for wildfire: Clear the area around your home of combustible objects. It’s a straightforward step to keep your home safer from wildfire.

NIST research has found that trash cans, sheds, and vegetation can create a pathway for flames, making it more likely that a fire will spread to your home.

May is Building Safety Month, so we’ll be highlighting people and research here at NIST that help keep the buildings around us safe.

#BuildingSafety365

What? You don't think about geese and World Metrology Day? Are you saying we're alone with these invasive thoughts?

Scientists at NIST could soon do for light what the silicon chip did for electronics. Researchers have developed a method to build complex circuits for light on a chip the size of a fingernail.

Think of it like a high-tech layer cake. By stacking specialized materials, scientists can turn a single laser color into a full rainbow of light, controlling it all on a tiny scale.

This advancement could lead to better navigation by using portable atomic clocks that don't rely on satellites. It could help build faster and more powerful AI and virtual reality displays. And it could boost quantum computers that could help discover new drugs and materials.

The next big leap in radio communication might not be a bigger antenna. It could be a “giant” atom.

Quantum scientists use lasers to super-size atoms to the width of a human hair. These “Rydberg” atoms become extremely sensitive to electric fields that make up radio waves.

Why does this matter? These atomic antennas are ultra-compact; no massive towers required. They’re broadband, able to “hear” frequencies from near zero to 1 terahertz. They are highly accurate out of the box, as their operation is based on the fundamental laws of physics.

From quantum radar to mapping Earth’s vegetation to more secure communications, quantum sensing could transform how we send and receive information.

Welcome to the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) in Charleston, South Carolina.

The HML is owned by @noaa, but it houses staff from NOAA, NIST, the College of Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

The HML is a world-class research facility where scientists are researching factors that affect the health of coastal waters and humans who live in or visit the coastal zone. It is also home to the NIST Biorepository.

Gravity keeps our feet on the ground, holds planets in orbit around the Sun, and shapes galactic clusters to weave the web of the universe. But its strength, expressed as the universal gravitational constant, or “big G,” is not exactly known. In fact, even after more than two centuries of measurements, big G remains the least well-known of the fundamental constants of nature.

A new measurement of big G by NIST scientists, which is the culmination of ten years of painstaking study and analysis, only deepens the mystery.

Muck around and find out.

Domestic sludge is the muck collected at wastewater treatment plants. It can contain all kinds of contaminants, from antibiotics and pesticides to oils and heavy metals.

The sludge in this material was collected from a sewer plant that treats local or domestic waste in Denver, Colorado. NIST scientists freeze-dried it, ground it into a fine, homogenized powder, and analyzed it to create a standard reference material called NIST SRM 2781 Domestic Sludge.

Why does NIST have it in the first place? Science, obviously. Once sterilized, domestic sludge can be used as a soil fertilizer. But high concentrations of heavy metals, like lead and arsenic, in domestic sludge can also contaminate soil, potentially impacting the food chain. So, when scientists test their sterilized sludge samples for heavy metals, they need to make sure they’re getting accurate results.

Labs use the SRM for quality control to help make sure heavy metal concentrations fall within established standard levels set by the EPA.

The winner of Materials Mayhem is...Radioactive Human Lung!

This standard reference material (SRM) is primarily used as a quality control material to determine the accuracy of the measurements of radioactivity in the human body.

When a radiation contamination incident occurs (such as in Chernobyl or Fukushima), doctors use models and calibrate instruments based on this SRM to precisely measure how much radiation a victim has absorbed and where it is located in their body, allowing for more effective medical treatment.

You can learn more about SRM 4351 at the link in our bio.

Peanut butter or radioactive lung: Which will it be?

Peanut butter or radioactive lung: Which will it be?

Meet the electrostatic force balance (EFB), a device that measures the mass of small objects weighing between 50 micrograms and 20 milligrams, or everything from an eyelash to a staple. The instrument is critical for calibrating instruments used in areas such as nanotechnology, environmental science, electronics and health care.

The EFB uses electrostatic forces, like those that make your hair stand up when you rub a balloon on your head, to measure these tiny masses.

Scientists calculate these forces from electrical measurements done on the balance. These electrical measurements can be very stable over time and can reduce the uncertainty in the overall measurement.

The instrument is also very sensitive. The balance picks up “noise” from environmental disturbances, such as the vibrations from vehicles on a nearby highway. It gets its best data on snowy days when there are fewer people on the road. But don’t worry: NIST researcher Gordie Shaw accounts for the noise in various ways to ensure that it doesn’t affect the results.

#Metrology #Mass #Electrostatic #Force #Balance

Welcome to Round 3 of Materials Mayhem! We narrowed it down to our final four.

You can vote for this round on our Instagram story for the next 24 hours. The next vote will take place next week!