What is NIST, and why do they get such prime real estate on the west side of Broadway? Believe it or not, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a branch of the US Department of Commerce, has been a contributing factor to the growth and importance of Boulder as a high tech community since 1952. In 1949, the Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer announced the selection of Boulder as the site for the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and Central Radio Propagation Laboratory (CRPL). This was right after the second world war and right before Korea. Military technology was pushing the industrial... Read More

Ask someone exactly how long one second is, and you’re likely to get a smirk. If pressed, many might rely on the “one-Mississippi” trick from their hide-and-seek days. Others might claim an innate sense of it, as though they’re a minor—if punctual—X-Men style mutant. But, honestly, most would look at their smartphone. Ask the right scientist that question, though, and they’ll tell you with confidence: it’s a matter of 9,192,631,770. Boulder is home to NIST, which, among its distinctions, is the keeper of official civilian time in the United States. That moniker comes as a direct... Read More