The world depends on a collection of strange items. They're not cheap

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Thanks to Rich Press and NIST for the great visit.
Thanks to Dr. Steve Choquette, Dr. Ben Place, and Dr. Johanna Camara for teaching us about the world of Standard Reference Materials.

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References:

Vincent, J. (2022). Made to measure: why we can’t stop quantifying our lives. The Guardian –

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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:

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Written by Derek Muller & Emily Zhang
Edited by Trenton Oliver
Animation by Ivy Tello & Mike Radjabov
Filmed by Derek Muller, Trenton Oliver, and Emily Zhang
Additional video/photos supplied by Pond5 & Getty Images
Music from Epidemic Sound
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang

[jackharbor]

As a cybersecurity engineer, I cannot hype up NIST enough. They maintain this security database that contains all known software vulnerabilities in existence. Every major company, government and military is using this database to check for vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. Thank you NIST.

[BunnLilah]

They need to get that "most average person in the country" and have them live there just to 100% the collection

[kevp]

The existence of "Powdered Domestic Sludge" makes me immediately think of someone using it for a prank and not realizing they're commiting bioterrorism.

[ManaMangon]

They're on a 100% item collecting run

[jakekaufmann]

As someone in the analytical chemistry field, these standards are vital. It is how analytical labs are able to charge such a price for what seems to be them just analysing a sample.

[ryanqualley]

I love how passionate that guy is about his job. You can tell he loves so much about what he does, and he is so excited about it and it makes me really happy to see.

[gerbipospolity]

Didin't stop NileRed from making his cookie lmao

[godlugner]

Fun fact: the Calories on the nutrition label is calculated by setting the food on fire!
The Cal is a measure of energy released heating 1 g of water, the sample is placed in a sphere surrounded by water then ignited. The temperature difference of the surrounding water determines how much energy the food contains, as the stomach works just like a combustion engine or.... something like that

[rcrnitto]

I work for a company that produces every type of analytical measurement instrument you could ever think of. We use NIST reference materials every day to qualify our instruments. We call them SARMs though, standard analytical reference materials. We use NIST steel spheres to calibrate our density measurement machines. They produce a great product, and are vital to industries like mine. Keep up the good work guys!

[rogermouton]

Just makes me think that, in general, there's so many people with really deep knowledge and skills that are working away constantly to keep our world safe and operational. It's very useful to remember how we're all so dependent on people like this.

[sethwalker]

I work in a polymer manufacturing laboratory and I cannot stress the importance of standards enough! Such an interesting clip!

[Salex]

I'm a pharmacist and always ensured my students knew that the temperature monitoring devices (basically a thermometer) for the refrigerator/freezer that holds medications must have a certificate of calibration tracing its accuracy back to NIST, as well as ensuring they knew those devices do in fact "expire" and should be re-calibrated or, more practically, replaced. Great video to get to see the rest of NIST's world!

[markproulx]

NIST is one of, if not the, most under appreciated of all US government agencies. I was lucky to be able to tour their metrology lab in Gathersburg, MD in 2007. It was just mind blowing.

[bigsky]

This video confirms what I've recently learned that NIST touches every aspect of our lives, from the accuracy of your metric ruler to the accuracy of the compounds that go into a jar of peanut butter. I first learned about NIST in 1977 (known back then as the National Bureau of Standards) when I was about 7 years old, and at the time, I figured all they did all day was make sure clocks ran accurate right down to the nanosecond.

[franzpattison]

"so, what do you collect?"
"everything."
"..."

[megabigblur]

As a scientist, I really appreciate this. These guys are the ubernerds working behind the scenes to make sure us ordinary nerds can have the tools to do our jobs.

[samiurkhan]

NIST also played a pivotal role in standardizing internet communication protocols. Without them, the Internet would be a much more chaotic and much slower

[someone_sad]

This place reminds me the "Developers Room" that's (secretly) present in most of Bethesda games. It's a room that has every material used in the game. NIST is the IRL version of this xD

[makeritualnoise]

This is so interesting! I worked at an environmental testing lab and we did get standards from NIST but it was for our yearly test to maintain our certifications. Always super stressful to do those tests and hope you get the right answer because we don't have the certification he showed early on in the video. It's so neat to have a face and fuller understanding of a government body that put fear and terror in my heart lol.

[edwinglenn]

I used to work as a chemist in a materials testing lab, and we used NIST metallic standards constantly. Our machine shop even machined a lot of those charpy standards for NIST!