National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

If you’ve ever watched a crime show or movie, you probably know that DNA can be a vital part of public safety and police work. However, collecting and processing DNA is much more complex than it appears on TV. Law enforcement typically sends samples to crime labs, where they are processed under strict protocols that can take hours or days. When law enforcement needs a faster result, they use Rapid DNA technology. A NIST expert is helping to ensure Rapid DNA meets strict accuracy standards. Learn more in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://lnkd.in/ep45FAfx

The global market for nanotech is more than $100 billion annually and growing. Making better products depends in part on measuring and analyzing how nanoscale materials perform, a part of the process that a team of NIST scientists says requires an update. According to NIST researchers, a common data analysis error can give misleading insights into how nanoscale objects’ properties depend on their size. The team also offers a practical solution — a mathematical correction that can reveal how these materials truly behave. The team’s discovery has many implications, from testing material properties to developing nanotechnology. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e55SjkvN

In early 2025, particles of light made their way through a 62-kilometer fiber-optic cable strung above the streets and sidewalks of the Maryland suburbs. The arrival of those particles, linked by a special kind of bond known as entanglement, marks a significant step toward a long-held dream of building a “quantum network.” Researchers believe this emerging technology could someday link telescopes across continents for sharp images of distant planets, help sensors predict earthquakes before they strike and enable secure communications in which any hacking attempt would be obvious. The catch? Entanglement is fragile. Wind, temperature swings, even birds landing on a cable can disrupt it. Even so, NIST scientists managed to transmit up to 1,500 entangled photons per second from the agency’s campus in Gaithersburg to the University of Maryland in College Park. Here's how they pulled it off: https://lnkd.in/e4MTjYYz

NIST and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science are establishing a collaboration to use AI-accelerated innovation to address national science and technology challenges established by the Genesis Mission. The Genesis Mission is a whole-of-government initiative that aims to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade by unlocking AI-enabled scientific discovery and innovation. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e5JAz8JT

Necessity is the mother of invention, as the proverb goes. So it’s no surprise that NIST researchers often invent new things while solving important problems. Today’s issue provides the latest example, with our news story describing a new patent for a water heater design that creates high temperatures needed to kill harmful microbes then cools the water to prevent scalding of human skin. For other examples of recent NIST patents, we welcome you to visit our page where you can explore them by topic. Our work doesn’t end with patents; rather, they are just the beginning of the technology transfer process. We encourage industry and all interested parties to collaborate with us in licensing and developing our technologies for commercialization to grow the U.S. economy while improving Americans’ quality of life. Read more in this edition of Tech Beat.

How it started….How it’s going Gravity is one of the most important – and most mysterious—forces in the universe. Without gravity, planets, stars and galaxies wouldn’t be able to form. By accounting for it, we can design successful flight paths for spacecraft exploring our solar system, learn how fast the universe is expanding, and understand how matter forms black holes. A century ago, NIST scientists helped confirm Einstein’s theory of general relativity—the modern theory of gravity—by measuring the gravitational forces exerted by crystals with different shapes and orientations (as seen in image 1). We confirmed that gravity has the same strength in all directions, as Einstein predicted. Recently, NIST researchers presented the world’s latest measurement of Big G, the number that expresses the strength of gravity (image 2). They used a modern version of a torsion balance, which senses the tiny gravitational forces between objects as they twist a thin fiber. As scientists measure gravity with increasing precision and accuracy, new discoveries could emerge, including the existence of previously unknown forces. As always, NIST researchers will go wherever science takes them. Learn more about NIST’s recent adventures in gravity: https://lnkd.in/emuYED49

Cryptography is the fundamental technology used on computers to protect information, whether it is stored on a device or communicated over the internet. Cryptography uses algorithms based on math problems that are challenging for computers to solve. The computers we have now can’t easily break these encrypted algorithms. But in the future, quantum computers will likely be able to crack these codes. So, experts will need to adjust accordingly to defend against attacks on our data, such as financial and medical records. Learn more in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://lnkd.in/euu4cwBf #PQC #PostQuantumSecurity #PostQuantumCryptography

We go with the flow at NIST – the very, very small flow. Researchers in the optofluidics lab shown here can measure nano- and micro-scale flows of liquids more accurately and at shorter time increments than anywhere else in the world. These flows can be extremely slow – around 1 nanoliter per minute. At this rate it would take a can of soda almost a century to drain through a hole the size of a human hair! The researchers can measure these tiny flows with miniscule uncertainty using a NIST patented flowmeter. Additionally, the optofluidics lab has developed a special version of a flow cytometer, a tool that uses lasers to study cells for medical diagnostics and other applications. The team’s “microfluidic serial cytometer” provides the first ever uncertainty measurements in a flow cytometer. The serial cytometer makes measurements in the tiny channels used to control small amounts of fluids. Pairing the device with new data analysis techniques, they can estimate different characteristics of particles or cells as they flow along the channels. Amazingly, the device can both control and measure more than 100 particles per second traveling at velocities approaching 1 meter per second and detect velocity variations below 0.1 % (1 millimeter/second)! Since these devices are only about 5 cm long, the particles are in the device for a fraction of second. If these tiny particles were scaled up to the size of a human, they would travel at roughly 100,000 meters per second, or 224,000 miles per hour!

In our connected world, information systems must agree on at least one thing to operate properly: the time. This is particularly useful for network-distributed applications such as the Internet of Things and for tracing failures in communications networks. NIST provides official U.S. time over the internet so that users and customers can have a traceable, unbiased reference. The best part is that a time request is quick, easy and free for everyone. No wonder the NIST Network Time Service receives approximately 1 million web requests per second, which makes it the most requested service provided by the U.S. government. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dYDsqmW

NIST engineer Marc Levitan has been fascinated with windstorms ever since he grew up in Pennsylvania. Combining his fascination with tornadoes with his interest in building construction, he has helped develop ways to make buildings much more resilient to the effects of these deadly windstorms. On July 28, join us in person or online to hear his insights about: 🌪️ How tornadoes are unique and their impacts on buildings. 🌪️ The design of tornado shelters and safe rooms to provide protection from the most intense twisters. 🌪️ New building code requirements for tornado-resistant design of schools, hospitals, and other critical facilities. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e8P2XqRW