NIST's Best Science Pictures of 2019: Ion Traps, Tiny Clocks and a Frozen Balloon

Science is often thought of as visually dry, all charts and graphs. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) begs to differ, and at the end of 2019 its Taking Measure blog picked its favourite images of the year.

A freeze-frame microscope

June Lau with the new microscope. Photo: R. Wilson/NIST.

NIST's June Lau, with Brookhaven National Laboratory and Euclid Techlabs, invented a new kind of electron microscope that captures still images of atomic-scale structures in mid-motion. Microwaves at a chosen frequency are sent through a waveguide so that only electrons riding the right wave get through; controlling the waves controls the moment captured.

A trap for ions

An ion trap of gold electrodes on a sapphire chip. Photo: D. Slichter/NIST.

An ion trap holds atoms that have gained or lost electrons. This one was used to amplify and measure the tiny motions of a single magnesium ion by "quantum squeezing", and to entangle several ions, linking their properties at a distance. Work like this puts NIST at the front of quantum information research, including efforts to build a practical quantum computer.

A clock beside a coffee bean

The heart of a chip-scale optical atomic clock, with a coffee bean for scale. Photo: M.T. Hummon/NIST.

The heart of this miniature atomic clock ticks at optical frequencies set by the vibrations of rubidium atoms. Standard atomic clocks use cesium, which still defines the second, but optical clocks like this can be about 100 times more precise and run longer on their own, making them candidates for a future redefinition of the second. Optical clocks have been bulky laboratory instruments; chip-sized ones could one day replace the oscillators in navigation and telecommunications. NIST built it with Caltech, Stanford and Draper Laboratory.

A Nobel laureate and liquid nitrogen

Bill Phillips tosses a balloon flattened by liquid nitrogen. Photo: J. Stoughton/NIST.

Nobel laureate Bill Phillips gave a talk at NIST's Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus on "Time, Einstein, and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe", cooling balloons with liquid nitrogen until the air inside barely moved and the balloons went flat as Frisbees. At −195.8 °C (−320 °F), liquid nitrogen also cools the atoms in NIST's F2 atomic clock, which will not gain or lose a second in 300 million years.

The rest of the list

• Glassblowing: Jo Wu, a NIST glassblower for 12 years, shaping molten glass on a lathe that spins it evenly as she heats it, into the base of an electrochemical reactor.
• Robot check-ups: NIST is developing quick ways to find problems in manufacturers' robot workcells, much as a doctor works along the bones of a foot, to catch trouble early and save time and money.
• A family visit: descendants of former NIST director Allen Astin, among them his son, the actor John Astin, and grandsons Sean and Mackenzie Astin, toured the labs and helped dedicate a garden named for him.

Members of the Astin family with NIST’s grounds crew at the dedication of the Astin garden. Photo: N. Hanacek/NIST.

Sources

• National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Top 7 NIST Visuals of 2019," Taking Measure blog; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Photos from NIST.