Taking Measure Blog: Weights and measures

Weights and measures

Linking the World Through Chemical Measurements

April 23, 2019

Our modern world depends on global connections. For instance, how can you be sure that the nutrition labels are correct on imported food products such as that

Chasing Paper: Adventures in Fiber Analysis

March 19, 2019

Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, I had no scientific aspirations as a child. I do remember being entertained by science, relishing public television

The Case for Building Beautiful Instruments

March 26, 2019

I discovered my affinity for attractive instruments while working a job previous to my coming to NIST. My boss then had a love affair with the common hose clamp

For All Times, For All Peoples: How Replacing the Kilogram Empowers Industry

November 27, 2018

Two unusual things happened on Nov. 16, 2018. Fifty-four nations from every continent (except Antarctica) agreed on something, and metrology, the science of

black and white photo of a 1920s weights and measures inspector checking the accuracy of a grocery store scale using test weights

Back to Basics: Weights and Measures Week 2018

March 7, 2018

Happy Weights and Measures Week 2018! What’s “Weights and Measures Week,” you might ask? That’s the week set aside every year to commemorate the signing of the

The Romance of Precision Measurement

February 7, 2018

Being from Colorado, I’m a big fan of winter sports: skiing, skating, snowboarding, hockey, bobsledding, and even curling. Like many people, I look forward to

Pirates of the Caribbean (Metric Edition)

September 19, 2017

To save his own life, Joseph Dombey had an idea. As two pirate ships surrounded the ship he was on in the Caribbean Sea in 1794, Dombey scrambled below deck

Teaching Metrology Abroad as a Fulbright Specialist

March 8, 2017

It seems that I have been a teacher nearly my entire life. One of my first jobs as an early teen was helping to teach gymnastics to elementary students. Before

Measuring Up to the Task

March 3, 2017

Even though I have spent my entire professional career at NIST, until a year ago it would never have entered my mind that I would become the chief of the NIST

The Unit Price is Right

March 1, 2017

Believe it or not, I love to grocery shop. Besides getting to pick all my favorite foods, I love the challenge of getting the best deals—and a challenge it can

Taking Measure