It’s cool to be small. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have miniaturized the optical components required to cool atoms down to a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, the first step in employing them on microchips to drive a new generation of super-accurate atomic clocks, enable navigation without GPS, and simulate quantum systems. …
Tag: NIST
US Congress Passes an IoT Security Bill ‘That Doesn’t Totally Suck’
Shotgun (Slashdot reader #30,919) shared these thoughts from The Register: Every now and again the U.S. Congress manages to do its job and yesterday was one of those days: the Senate passed a new IoT cybersecurity piece of legislation that the House also approved, and it will now move to the President’s desk. As we noted back in March when the…
A billion tiny pendulums could detect the universe’s missing mass
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have proposed a novel method for finding dark matter, the cosmos’s mystery material that has eluded detection for decades. Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe; ordinary matter, such as the stuff that builds stars and planets, accounts for just 5% of the cosmos. (A mysterious…
New system detects faint communications signals using the principles of quantum physics
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised and demonstrated a system that could dramatically increase the performance of communications networks while enabling record-low error rates in detecting even the faintest of signals, potentially decreasing the total amount of energy required for state-of-the-art networks by a factor of 10 to 100. …
Scientists reveal the power behind the curtain—with neutrons
In a potential step forward for imaging technology, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Sandia National Laboratories have developed a way to use neutrons to detect electric fields in spaces that are unreachable by conventional probes. …
Facial Recognition Designed To Detect Around Face Masks Is Failing, Study Finds
Many facial recognition companies have claimed they can identify people with pinpoint accuracy even while they’re wearing face masks, but the latest results from a study show that the coverings are dramatically increasing error rates. CNET reports: In an update Tuesday, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology looked at 41 facial recognition algorithms submitted after the COVID-19 pandemic was…
Spin wave detective story redux: Researchers find more surprising behavior in a 2-D magnet
A few months ago, a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reported something surprising about a 2-D magnetic material: Behavior that had long been presumed to be due to vibrations in the lattice—the internal structure of the atoms in the material itself—is actually due to a wave of spin oscillations. …
NIST Study Finds That Masks Defeat Most Facial Recognition Algorithms
In a report published today by the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST), a physical sciences laboratory and non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, researchers attempted to evaluate the performance of facial recognition algorithms on faces partially covered by protective masks. They report that even the best of the 89 commercial facial recognition algorithms they tested had error…
State-of-the-Art Crypto Goes Post-Quantum (with Containerized TinySSH)
emil (Slashdot reader #695) writes: The advent of quantum computing poses a well-recognized threat to RSA and other well-known asymmetric cryptosystems. It has been four years since NIST opened the post-quantum cryptography competition, and we are seeing extensive delays compared to AES. A new and (hopefully) quantum-secure SSH key exchange, based on NTRU Prime, has been present in OpenSSH since January…
Atomic ‘Swiss Army knife’ precisely measures materials for quantum computers
It images single atoms. It maps atomic-scale hills and valleys on metal and insulating surfaces. And it records the flow of current across atom-thin materials subject to giant magnetic fields. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a novel instrument that can make three kinds of atom-scale measurements simultaneously. Together, these measurements can uncover new knowledge…