The laser shines as part of an advanced atomic watch in NIST. The exact measurements of the colors of light emitted with atoms are necessary for everything from atomic watches to medical devices.
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The Trump administration plans to close a mysterious small laboratory that is subject to its work everything from the manufacture of fine chips to the nuclear fusion.
the Atomic spectral analysis group At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) it provides final measurements of atomic spectra. Speakers are specific sets of colors emitted from different atomic elements. These collections of colors work as atomic imprints used to describe them A wide range of things-from gases in distant stars, to the blood in the person’s finger.
The laboratory was in a continuous process for more than 120 years, but in mid -April, he would be forced to close, according to a letter sent by the laboratory head, Yuri Ralchenko, to dozens of colleagues around the world.
“We were recently reported that unless there is a major change in the federal government reorganization plans, the entire atomic spectrum group will be accelerated within a few weeks,” Rulchenko wrote in the letter that was sent via e -mail on March 18. The message was I mentioned for the first time by Wireless.
“Our work is not legally necessary for the NIST mission,” Ralchenko says in the letter.
But thousands of scholars and engineers do not agree. petition It is now circulating to reverse the closure, and it has received approximately 3000 signatures from Wednesday. Among the two signers, the Nobel Prize -winning physicist.
“I cannot believe that the government will be stupid enough,” Glasho said in the video statement.
A section of the atomic spectrum of iron. Each element on the periodic table gives a unique set of spectral lines that are carefully indexed by the group.
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Color code
There is overwhelming support because the group’s spectral measurements are used to almost every field that can be imagined, according to Elizabeth Goldshmit, physicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana Chambine.
“You look at the very specific color of the star, and it can tell you the star’s makeup. You look at the blood on a person’s finger … and the oxygen can tell you in the blood,” she says.
But to accurately measure colors, devices such as telescopes and pulse oxidation standards must be calmed properly, and here comes the atomic spectral analysis group. The laboratory maintains Database One of the atomic spectra is the standard reference used to ensure that the devices operate properly. Each month, the database receives about 70,000 inquiries from all over the world, according to Modern post On this topic on NIST – it is cited in two research sheets daily, according to another Presentation Written by Ralchenko.
Among the researchers who inquire about the Brett Morris database, astronomer at the Baltimore Space Telescope Institute, Maryland, which works on the James Web telescope in NASA. Morris studies the planets around the distant stars. Sometimes he says, the light coming from these stars seems surprising.
“The first thing you have to do is know who blames – was the oxygen? Was the carbon? Was Neon?” He says. “The supplier to do this is the database produced by the atomic spectrum analysis group.”
In addition, the laboratory conducts accurate measurements of the ultraviolet atomic spectra, which are necessary to develop advanced fine chips. UV light is used to dig small circles, and progress in this field requires detailed knowledge of the atomic spectra of the elements in the extreme UV rays. Goldsheedt says that there is a handful of facilities looking at ultraviolet radiology, and this group is one of them. It also studies plasma, which are supplied gases that perpetuate nuclear fusion reactions. Researchers around the world follow fusion as a clean and unlimited form of energy, and the detailed knowledge of the plasma is necessary for this development.
NIST nor Mother Agency, the Ministry of Commerce, NPR inquiries about the closure, did not respond, but savings from the closure of the laboratory will be slim. The NIST budget is only $ 1.5 billion, less than 0.02 % of the annual government budget of $ 7 trillion.
Silicon chip with fine chips engraved in it. Microscopic chips are drilled using specific wavelengths of light. Better ultraviolet light measurements are needed to enhance the manufacture of chips.
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Inside NIST, the atomic spectral analysis group consists of seven full -time federal employees. Even the group employees are pushing the coffee and sugar pocket used in coffee periods and they have done so since 1973, according to video Celebrating the anniversary last year.
In contrast, if the spectrum analysis group is closed, the costs will be enormous, as scientists say. The researchers all over the world say for the Internet are looking for the best spectral measurements.
Stambulchik says: What takes a few minutes may take “long hours, maybe several days.” He says: “I hit several hours through several thousand scientists and understand the wasting of work time, there will be without a central database,” he says.
But Goldshmit says the real blow will be for the industry. She says that the presence of criteria for calibration and the central and agreed measurement “is what allows industries to innovate and create new products.” “Everyone wins when this happens in NIST because everyone can rely on what NIST is doing, and they do not have to invest their time and money in doing this themselves.”