Prize for excellent measurements

Call for the Helmholtz Prize 2024

19-Jul-2023 - Anyone who has conducted precision measurements within the scope of a scientific project or assignment should pay close attention: You are eligible to apply for the Helmholtz Prize. It is Europe’s most prestigious award in metrology — the science of exact measurement — and will be awarded in two ...

Quantum sensors: Measuring even more precisely

Better measurements with little extra effort

25-Mar-2022 - Two teams of physicists led by Peter Zoller and Thomas Monz at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, have designed the first programmable quantum sensor, and tested it in the laboratory. To do so they applied techniques from quantum information processing to a measurement problem. The innovative ...

Original kilogram replaced

New International System of Units (SI) entered into force

23-May-2019 - In addition to Ampere, Kelvin, Mol and Co., the kilogram also is now defined by a natural constant. In concrete terms, this means that the original kilogram, which has been the measure of all things for 130 years, has now served its purpose in Paris. This is made possible by the single crystals ...

Power to the constants!

On World Metrology Day what defines a kilogram, an ampere and all the other units will change fundamentally

15-May-2019 - If you come across someone who can tell you by heart and without cheating what a kilogram is after 20 May 2019, beware! It is probably a particular kind of scientist, a metrologist, who is still overly enthusiastic about the fundamental change experienced by the International System of Units, the ...

ZEISS and EPFL begin long-term research collaboration

01-Dec-2016 - ZEISS will support innovative research projects at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, abbr. EPFL). The company will make one million euros available for new research projects in key technology fields such as biomedical research, ...

The "new" kilogram is approaching

Avogadro constant determined with enriched silicon-28

11-Feb-2011 - A milestone in the international Avogadro project coordinated by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) has been reached: With the aid of a single crystal of highly enriched 28Si, the Avogadro constant has now been measured as exactly as never before with a relative overall uncertainty ...

NIST nanofluidic 'multi-tool' separates and sizes nanoparticles

11-Aug-2010 - A wrench or a screwdriver of a single size is useful for some jobs, but for a more complicated project, you need a set of tools of different sizes. Following this guiding principle, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have engineered a nanoscale fluidic device ...

Beyond the Quantum Limit

MPQ-LMU scientists create multi-particle entanglement of atoms in a Bose Einstein condensate on a microchip

08-Apr-2010 - The microcosm, the realm of quantum physics, is ruled by probability and chance. The behaviour of quantum particles cannot be predicted with certainty but only with certain probabilities given by quantum physics. This results in a so-called quantum noise, which fundamentally limits the precision ...

Checking people at airports with terahertz radiation

PTB succeeds in absolute measurement of terahertz radiation

22-Sep-2008 - Within the last few years the number of transport checks – above all at airports – has been increased considerably. A worthwhile effort as, after all, it concerns the protection of passengers. Possibilities for new and safe methods of transport checks are offered by terahertz radiation. Before ...

Radioactivity: Discover the lowest amounts with new methods

18-Sep-2008 - Detecting ever lower amounts of ionising radiation with ever better methods – scientists have had this goal since the start of the nuclear age. In addition to natural radiation, mankind is exposed to a multitude of other sources of radiation which result from the military and technical use of ...