NIST Featured in Media’s Top Science Stories of 2015

January 6, 2016

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Contact: Laura Ost 
303-497-4880

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is featured in several of the news media’s lists of the top science stories of 2015.

NIST’s change at the top was a top headline of 2015 in Chemical and Engineering News’ Chemistry Year In Review. NIST Veteran Became U.S. Government’s Top Chemist notes that “Willie E. May became the U.S. government’s top chemist on May 4 when the Senate confirmed him as the 15th director of the National Institute of Standards & Technology ... He leads NIST at a time when it is the go-to federal agency for research and standards in important areas such as forensic science, cybersecurity, and manufacturing.”  

In research achievements, NIST’s confirmation of “spooky action at a distance” made several media lists of top stories of the year, along with similar experiments by two other groups. In its Top 25 Science Stories of 2015, Science News noted in its #9 pick, Quantum spookiness is real, that the NIST research yielded particularly strong data. (NIST is mentioned at the link.) RealClearScience included quantum entanglement as #4 and linked to the Science News story in The (Ultimate) Top Ten Science Stories of 2015. In addition, Gizmodo highlighted NIST’s high precision in its spooky action experiment in These are Our Picks for the Top Science Stories of 2015. 

The NIST research is also featured in the American Physical Society’s Highlights of the Year, which noted the achievements “lay the groundwork for secure quantum cryptography schemes.” Several additional media lists of top stories include the spooky action experiments without mentioning NIST by name. For example, CNET’s #3 story of the year is Quantum entanglement loopholes closed. (CNET previously covered the NIST experiments.) CBC Radio Canada’s top science stories of 2015 includes Spooky Action at a Distance (the story uses a NIST image but does not mention NIST specifically otherwise).  

Among other research topics highlighted by the media, Digital Journal’s What you should know about the top science stories of 2015 included work by NIST and collaborators on using nanoparticles and heat to attack cancer tumors. Cosmos Magazine, in its Top Ten Tech Stories of 2015, lists JILA’s strontium atomic clock as its #6 story and links to its associated article, The Most Accurate Clock Ever Made.