Precision Measurement Hits Cable

Posted by Chad Orzel on May 21, 2010
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I didn’t see it live, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can see Tom O’Brian of NIST talking about measurement on the Rachel Maddow show last night:

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Tom used to have an office not far from the lab I worked in at NIST, and has a background in laser stuff, so he’s got to be a good guy for this. This was in honor of World Metrology Day, celebrating the hundred-and-mumbleth anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Meter yesterday. Ironically, all the numbers Tom cites are given in English units.

So, belated happy Metrology Day to all the good folks out there measuring things to ridiculous precision. And good for Rachel Maddow giving some great science a minute in the (cable) spotlight.

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Comments

  1. #1 asad
    May 21, 2010

    That was a great segment. You can tell that Maddow is totally psyched about the whole thing. Love it.

  2. #2 ThirtyFiveUp
    May 21, 2010

    Rachel is a National Treasure.

  3. #3 Michael Ross
    May 21, 2010

    Kudos to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC for being the only Western (let alone American) news media to mention ‘World Metrology Day’ Thursday, May 20th!

    METROLOGY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrology

    World Metrology Day: http://www.worldmetrologyday.org/

    Worldwide, the African news-media sources made-up the majority of mentions, with a sprinkling of Russian, and Korean media sites making mention of ‘World Metrology Day.’

    All is not lost; as term ‘Metrology’ got mention over the last day! So relax, the Metrology profession will always play vital roles (like Oxygen does for life); that the profession may not even need a much publicized day? After all, is there a “World Oxygen Day??”

    http://tinyurl.com/37rzdt7

    Still, not even one other mention in the West?? If we let the ‘Metrology’ field get “lost in the shuffle” and “taken too much for granted,” will we have to “dig-out” or find (or even rent-out) those old-tools (built in the Metrology profession’s heyday); in order to compare the old tools to today’s newer tools?

    After all, it’s seems necessary to “take the time” to make sure “an inch is an inch,” or “a pound is a pound” or “a meter is a meter.” Just like asking (or measuring) “the meaning of……meaning,” the “context of…….context,” and of course, “the meaning (or context) of the word….’is!’

    Talk about “measures of importance!!”