National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

It’s not luck that ensures the food you buy in the grocery store is safe or the lab where your doctor sends your samples accurately calculated your cholesterol levels.   That's one of the big reasons NIST exists—to reduce uncertainty in our measurements and increase your confidence in the information you use to make important decisions in your daily life.  And part of the way NIST does that is through Standard Reference Materials (SRMs). In fact, NIST produces than 1,000 different types of SRMs, from gold nanoparticles to slurried spinach.  Read more about SRMs at https://lnkd.in/g8EfDp8P #StPatricksDay #Standards #ReferenceMaterial

Happy Pi Day from NIST! #PiDay

Ever heard of a geoduck clam? These uniquely shaped outsized mollusks are an important U.S. food product and vital to coastal economies in Washington state and Alaska. To make sure these clams and other shellfish are safe to eat, they must be tested for:  🌊 toxic elements  🌊 biotoxins  🌊 inorganic arsenic (a known carcinogen) and other compounds NIST researchers developed a standard reference material that will help support more accurate measurements of inorganic arsenic in geoduck clams and other shellfish.  Learn more about the material: https://lnkd.in/ewS9x3HT #Shellfish #Standards #Health #Arsenic #Innovation #AnalyticalChemistry

Maria Skłodowska-Curie (commonly known as Marie Curie) revolutionized our understanding of the atomic world. Her work had long-lasting effects on medicine, technology and the course of human history.   An extraordinary scientist, Nobel Prize winner, wife and mother, Curie paved a path into science for generations of women who came after her. One of the women Curie inspired is NIST researcher Justyna Zwolak, whose work focuses on using AI and computer vision to advance quantum technology.  Learn Justyna’s story – and how Curie’s life and legacy motivated her – in our latest Taking Measure blog post: https://lnkd.in/ek4XW-jd

NIST has chosen a new algorithm for post-quantum encryption. These algorithms are designed to safeguard data if future quantum computers are powerful enough to break traditional encryption. Called HQC, the new algorithm will serve as a backup for ML-KEM — NIST’s recommended algorithm for the task of general encryption, which safeguards internet traffic and stored data. HQC is based on a different math approach than ML-KEM, which could be important if ML-KEM proves vulnerable. Encryption protects sensitive electronic information, including internet traffic and medical and financial records, as well as corporate and national security secrets. But a sufficiently powerful quantum computer, if one is ever built, would be able to break that defense. NIST has been working for more than eight years on encryption algorithms that even a quantum computer cannot break. NIST plans to issue a draft standard incorporating HQC in about a year, with a finalized standard expected in 2027.  Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ekaFzbdb #Quantum #Encryption #Computing #Data

Fingerprinting technologies have undergone many advances since NIST created the world’s first automated fingerprint matching algorithm in the 1960s. Now, NIST researcher Shahram Orandi is exploring (and measuring) contactless fingerprinting as a potential advancement for the field, and he’s using an imitation finger to do it. Instead of placing a hand directly in contact with the fingerprint scanning device to collect fingerprints, contactless technology can collect fingerprints with the hand at a slight distance from the scanner. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of a touchless technology became apparent for the health and safety of public safety personnel. But how accurate is this option when compared to the current method of contact-based fingerprint captures? Well, NIST published a preliminary analysis to see how fingerprints captured by these new generation of systems compares to that of legacy technologies, and how data can be exchanged between the two. And why is Shahram using a fake finger in the video instead of his own? In building methods to test these new devices, we developed another advancement in the field: fingerprint phantoms. These stand-ins for human appendages can be presented to fingerprint collection devices instead of having to use a real finger. The one shown here was designed with known specifications at NIST, so that we would have a consistent, repeatable process for testing the devices. It’s a sturdy representation, complete with a 3D-printed fingerbone inside and the ridges of a fingerprint on its surface. Preliminary analysis: Evaluating the Operational Impact of Contactless Fingerprint Imagery on Matcher Performance, DOI: https://lnkd.in/ehD2ZJD #Fingerprint #Fingerprinting #Contactless #LawEnforcement

Congratulations to NIST’s Rapid Drug Analysis and Research (RaDAR) Program on winning the Federal Laboratory Consortium Impact Award, which honors FLC member labs whose technology transfer efforts have made a tangible lasting impact on the populace or marketplace.   The RaDAR Program provides comprehensive drug testing data to 13 states and territories across the U.S. In total, more than 10,000 samples have been analyzed since the RaDAR Program began in October 2022, and notably, more than 6,500 samples were analyzed in fiscal year 2024 alone.  The RaDAR Program’s analysis and reports provides participants with chemical compound data that law enforcement, harm reduction organizations, and healthcare providers can use to develop more effective strategies for reducing fatalities and mitigating the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on communities. 

How can organizations gain useful insights from a database of confidential information while protecting the privacy of the individuals whose data it contains? Differential privacy can help strike this balance, and newly updated NIST guidance is intended to assist organizations with making the most of its capabilities. Differential privacy is a privacy-enhancing technology used in data analytics. A vendor may offer guarantees that if its differential privacy software is used, it will be impossible to re-identify an individual whose data appears in the database. The updated guidance aims to help organizations understand and evaluate this sort of claim more consistently.  This guidance was originally released in draft form in December 2023, and the authors have updated it with the goal of making it clearer and easier to use. https://lnkd.in/eWCrHAG9 #DataPrivacy #Data #ArtificialIntelligence #Privacy 

At the NIST laboratories in Charleston, South Carolina, industrial freezers store biospecimens, samples of biological material ranging from mussels to seabird eggs to sea turtle tissues.  Researchers at NIST and around the country use the NIST Biorepository specimens to advance their understanding of the environment and marine animal health.  But running the ultralow-temperature freezers at minus 80 C consumes a lot of energy. Every year, My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories sponsor a “Freezer Challenge” where labs around the world compete to reduce their carbon footprint.  Over the last year, NIST research biologist Debra Ellisor and her team have scoured their freezers, identifying samples that were no longer of high integrity (or, no longer valuable) or that could be consolidated to save space. They also performed their regular freezer maintenance, removing frost and ice, cleaning filters, and generally making sure the freezers were running at maximum efficiency.  The result: The NIST Biorepository was able to decommission three freezers. That translates into 99 kilowatt-hours of electricity saved per day, the equivalent energy use of three or four American homes.  There were nearly 1,200 entries in the 2024 competition. NIST scored in the top 20%.  “This is a way to reduce our energy consumption,” said Debra, “and at the same time enjoy some friendly competition.”  #Energy #Electricity #Biorepository

Most countries around the world have what’s called a national metrology institute, a unique organization dedicated wholly to the nation’s measurements. Since everything in science and technology is based on measurement and relies on measurements to work, it’s a big role.  If you live in the United States, yours is NIST. That means, we work for you to: 📏Maintain the country’s primary measurement standards  📏Provide traceability for all national measurement needs back to the international system of units (SI, or the metric system)  📏Represent the country in the SI for trade and science  📏Advance measurement science to support the country's economic competitiveness  📏Use measurement expertise to support the development of technically sound documentary standards Medical treatments, reliably manufactured products, wireless signals, safe foods to eat, resilient buildings and so much more rely on measurements. Read more about NIST as your national metrology institute: https://www.nist.gov/nmi  #Metrology #Measurement