National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Spooky season is upon us, so we’re highlighting some chilling research on NIST’s campus. What may look like a witch’s cauldron to some is actually a cryogenic freezer containing thousands of biospecimens (shown here). This is one of many freezers housed inside NIST’s Biorepository at the Hollings Marine Lab in Charleston, South Carolina. These freezers help preserve hundreds of thousands of biological and environmental samples that scientists use to study marine animal health, the ocean environment and human health. The samples, including marine mammal liver, kidney, blubber, serum and plasma and seabird egg contents, are stored in liquid nitrogen vapor-phase freezers at temperatures between minus 150 and minus 196 degrees Celsius. That’s colder than the East Antarctic Plateau, Earth’s most frigid natural location.

NIST, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have published 10 key practices for managing potential incidents during super intelligence training and evaluation. These practices address five critical stages: preparation, detection, response, recovery, and reporting. This is an important step toward strengthening incident readiness, supporting human oversight, and building trust in the secure development of increasingly capable super intelligence systems. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g3Ybw7je

Holy mole-y, it’s Mole Day!

Picture yourself at NIST. Calling all undergraduate students! We’re now accepting applications for our 2027 summer internship programs. Gain valuable, hands-on experiences in the labs of one of the world’s leading research organizations. Applications are due by January 26th. Check out this link for more information and to apply: https://www.nist.gov/surf

Our phones are constantly emitting silent signals in the form of invisible electromagnetic waveforms that travel through the air. These signals can provide trained experts with a wealth of information about the device, including whether it has been tampered with. The practice known as radio frequency fingerprinting could be especially useful for things like making sure no one is listening in on a diplomat’s phone. Companies are already testing measurement solutions for these signals, and NIST experts are assisting with those tests. Learn more in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://lnkd.in/eSR6eMQ3

As part of NIST's multi-year Hurricane Maria investigation, NIST is developing a documentary to help disseminate the investigation's findings and recommendations. We are seeking photos and videos captured before, during, and after Hurricane Maria, including footage that documents the preparations before the storm, the storm, its impacts, and the events and challenges experienced by communities in Puerto Rico in the years that followed. If you have photos or videos to share, please submit them through the NIST Disaster and Failure Studies Portal: https://lnkd.in/ekXqnTB6 Your firsthand footage can help tell the story of Hurricane Maria and its aftermath and help connect audiences with NIST's investigation. #HurricaneMaria #PuertoRico

Take a breather from your scrolling to learn more about NIST’s past and current research into what we can learn just by measuring your exhalations. NIST has been measuring what’s going on in our breath since the 1940s when we measured the amount of radon in the exhaled breath of workers who had been in contact with radium compounds, allowing us to quantify radium accumulation in the body (as seen in image 1/2). Today, our work ranges from measuring cannabis in breath (for public safety purposes) to reducing the size and improving the sensitivity of frequency combs so they can be used to detect and monitor the biomarkers of disease in our breath (as seen in image 2/2).

Time is taking a giant leap forward... by ditching the leap second. The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) voted to officially eliminate leap seconds, establishing continuous Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) effective May 20, 2027. For decades, leap seconds were inserted to keep atomic time aligned with Earth’s irregular rotation. However, forcing computers and global networks to pause or repeat a second could create widespread software glitches in telecom infrastructure. Under the new resolution, UTC will run without interruption. Instead of periodic 1-second adjustments, the tolerance between astronomical time and atomic time has been relaxed to allow up to a 1-hour deviation (a "leap hour")—a milestone likely several centuries or millennia away. Read the official resolution: https://lnkd.in/eQXm4GUN

By rearranging just a few atoms, two compounds with the same molecular formula can have dramatically different properties. For example, a chemical that once exuded the fragrance of mint gives off the scent of caraway; a drug that treated diabetes becomes no longer effective. Welcome to the world of isomers, where tiny, naturally occurring structural changes in a compound make a huge difference. To ensure the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, pharmaceutical companies need to know which isomer they are producing. To gain that knowledge, scientists at NIST and the Harvard School of Medicine have developed a novel way to identify the enzymes that act upon compounds to create specific isomers. Find out more about the discovery in the July 23 online issue of Nature Chemical Biology: https://lnkd.in/e5bzcjzz

The metric system has seven fundamental units of measurement, known as the base units. But no law of nature decides this; that number was chosen by humans. Units can be added or removed, which has happened throughout history. Even NIST colleagues disagree about how many base units we should have – or whether we need them at all. (Yes, these are the kind of things we chat about here at NIST.) Learn more in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://lnkd.in/eFiTFNBR