Metrology as a research area is the science of measurement encompassing the development, validation, and refinement of measurement standards, methods, and instrumentation to ensure traceability, accuracy, precision, and comparability of quantitative results. It includes fundamental metrology, which establishes and maintains SI units and reference standards; applied and industrial metrology, which optimize measurement processes in technological and manufacturing contexts; and scientific metrology, which advances measurement capabilities at extreme scales, uncertainties, and conditions. Research in metrology addresses uncertainty analysis, error propagation, calibration protocols, and the metrological characterization of novel physical, chemical, and biological quantities, thereby underpinning reliable experimentation, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance across disciplines.
The time had come to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), wasn't sure he wanted to know the secret number that lay inside. For the past 10 ...
Astronomy
Apr 16, 2026
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Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have achieved a major breakthrough in optical clock technology, developing a strontium optical lattice clock with stability and uncertainty both surpassing ...
Quantum Physics
Mar 9, 2026
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One of the most striking features of quantum physics is that certain properties cannot both be known or measured with arbitrary precision at the same time. Every measurement may inevitably affect the object's physical state ...
Quantum Physics
Mar 3, 2026
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By replacing single atoms with an entangled pair of ions, physicists in Germany have demonstrated unprecedented stability in an optical clock. Publishing their results in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Kai Dietze ...
By combining two fundamentally different microscopy techniques, researchers can now measure the optical properties of a sample with pinpoint accuracy. The original goal was to investigate biological samples on a molecular ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 29, 2026
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Graphene could transform everything from electric cars to smartphones, but only if we can guarantee its quality. The University of Manchester has led the world's largest study to set a new global benchmark for testing graphene's ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 13, 2026
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A research team at VTT MIKES has set a new record in optical-clock absolute frequency measurements using a strontium single-ion clock with exceptionally low uncertainty and high uptime.
General Physics
Dec 2, 2025
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In 1887, one of the most important experiments in the history of physics took place. American scientists Michelson and Morley failed to measure the speed of Earth by comparing the speed of light in the direction of Earth's ...
General Physics
Nov 19, 2025
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Tracking time is one of those things that seems easy, until you really start to get into the details of what time actually is. We define a second as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium atom. However, according to Einstein's ...
Space Exploration
Nov 13, 2025
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EPFL researchers have developed a method to calibrate electron spectrometers with extreme accuracy by linking microwave, optical, and free-electron frequencies.
Optics & Photonics
Oct 29, 2025
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