Cars. Cows. Oil and natural gas leaks. The list of what is polluting our atmosphere and contributing to global warming is long and varied. And if we want to solve this problem, being able to accurately measure what’s happening is key. NIST is contributing to this critical measurement challenge in…

Dereck Orr, chief of the Public Safety Communications Research Division at NIST I came to the Public Safety Communications Research Program (PSCR) as a program manager in 2002, after investigations into the emergency response to the events of 9/11 shed light on the tragic failure of first responder communications systems…

By Kate Beers, manager of NIST’s Circular Economy Program When I started college, I thought I was going to study foreign relations and languages. …

By Alex Boss, a writer in the NIST Public Affairs Office If you’ve seen the movie Titanic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, then you’ve watched the star-crossed lovers’ untimely end and the tragic sinking of the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic. What the movie didn’t show is that radio…

Ben Stein, Managing Editor, NIST Public Affairs Office When we talk about measurement units here at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), you’ll typically hear us rattling off the official ones — such as the meter, the second and the kilogram. These official measurements, which are part of…

Tanya Brown-Giammanco, Director of Disaster and Failure Studies, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) My Background in Disasters It seems as though I was born to be a disaster researcher. I can vividly remember seeking shelter during tornado warnings in the basement at friends’ or relatives’ houses, or in the church at the…

Ron Cowen, Science Writer and Editor, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Radiation expert and historian Bert Coursey, who has worked at NIST for 50 years, writes extensively on the history of radium and radiation standards. He recently reviewed NIST’s connection with the radium dial workers — notably the…

A conversation with NIST economist and U.S. delegate to the IPCC, Jennifer Helgeson Climate change keeps NIST economist Jennifer Helgeson up at night. Not with worry, but with work. For the last several weeks, Helgeson was working on the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body that publishes scientific assessments of climate change. As part of…

Mauro Zammarano, Materials Research Engineer, Fire Research Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fires that begin on upholstered furniture such as sofas are the leading cause of home fire fatalities in the United States, accounting for about 600 deaths per year. …