The world depends on a collection of strange items. They're not cheap
This government warehouse keeps our entire society up to standard. Part of this video was sponsored by Google Domains. Take the first step to get online with a domain name from Google Domains - go to domains.google/veritasium to get 20% off your first year. #GoogleDomains
▀▀▀
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.
You can check out all the cool work going on at NIST here: www.nist.gov/
▀▀▀
References:
NIST (2022). Standard Reference Materials. - ve42.co/WhyStandard2022
Montgomery, R. & Bercik, I. (2022). NIST Standard Reference Materials 2022 Catalog. - ve42.co/SRMCatalog
Vincent, J. (2022). Made to measure: why we can’t stop quantifying our lives. The Guardian -
ve42.co/Vincent2022
Proffitt, A. (2022). NIST Develops Monkeypox Reference Materials, Sees Growing Role in Outbreak Response. Diagnostics World. - ve42.co/Proffitt2022
▀▀▀
Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
James Sanger, Louis Lebbos, Elliot Miller, Brian Busbee, Jerome Barakos M.D., Amadeo Bee, TTST, Balkrishna Heroor, Chris LaClair, John H. Austin Jr., OnlineBookClub.org, Matthew Gonzalez, Eric Sexton, John Kiehl, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Mike Schneider, John Bauer, Jim Buckmaster, Juan Benet, Sunil Nagaraj, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi
▀▀▀
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
Пікірлер: 9 500
They need to get that "most average person in the country" and have them live there just to 100% the collection
@tsurutom
Жыл бұрын
*freeze dried and made into a fine, light grey powder
@conk444
Жыл бұрын
Then that wouldn’t be a very average place to live, would it?
@haifaa6380
Жыл бұрын
@@conk444 ❤❤
@blackcyklops
Жыл бұрын
Finally. My time has come
@kiesernation1977
Жыл бұрын
Or for court cases they’ll need a collection of “reasonable persons”
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.
@abrahamsanchez7455
Жыл бұрын
That’s actually pretty scary. They have more power than than the government itself
@areascoda2912
Жыл бұрын
Come to mysore it is cybersecurity capital of india
@KCGeno
Жыл бұрын
@@areascoda2912 -- I buy my bath soap from the factory in Mysore. Great stuff!
@jackstrubbe7608
Жыл бұрын
@@KCGeno I love that soap. The only thing I use along with Dr. Bronner's castile hemp soaps.
@nevermindgamer4946
Жыл бұрын
@@KCGeno Mysore sandal soaps. It's pretty popular in India too. The smells lovely
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.
@phaedrussmith1949
6 ай бұрын
So how does this relate to what you do? There's a dozen kinds of peanut butter on the shelf in Walmart, what's the point off having some standard in a government warehouse somewhere?
@Amaling
6 ай бұрын
@@phaedrussmith1949did you not watch the video? To make sure the peanut butter doesn’t fall above the known standard level of carcinogens
@phaedrussmith1949
6 ай бұрын
@@Amaling Of course I did and that's not what he said. What he said is that they get some company - probably Jiff or Skippy - to make some kind of peanut butter and then this place says "This is peanut butter" and then that's what peanut butter is. But, as I said, there are at least a dozen different kinds of peanut butter on the shelf of the market, and many of them are different than the others. So what's the standard? Not having poison in it (or, conversely and more likely, how much poison will be allowed in it)? This sounds much more like the alliance between big corporations and the government.
@Osama-Bon-Jovi-01
6 ай бұрын
@@phaedrussmith1949the reference material isn't supposed to be _the_ definitive peanut butter, it's to calibrate equipment so they can accurately measure levels of aflatoxins in their peanut butter
@phaedrussmith1949
6 ай бұрын
@@Osama-Bon-Jovi-01 So how do they know what they are calibrating against? Doesn't something have to have measured the aflatoxins first to know what the level of aflatoxins in the sample should test as? One can't calibrate equipment unless it is done against a known quantity.
I’m an analytical chemist, and anyone who works in any lab or in most manufacturing operations definitely knows and appreciates the vital importance of reference standards to calibrate our instruments and ‘test our tests.’ Now NIST isn’t the only game in town that provides SRMs, but you might consider them the ‘standard of standards.’
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.
@MrUssy101
Жыл бұрын
Sounds bunch of BS. Disagree This guy thinks he clever and has big brain and should eduecate us all??? He sounds so condescending!!!
@1999NOZA
Жыл бұрын
@@MrUssy101 Sounds like you need to read a book. Perhaps work on your grammar too!
@Em4gdn1m
Жыл бұрын
Lol that doesn't justify it's existence, only it's high cost.
@iveharzing
Жыл бұрын
@@MrUssy101 What? No he doesn't sound condescending. Where did you get that from?
@thewatchfuleye8401
Жыл бұрын
I am disgusted after watching this -- The only way a place like that get funding from the governent is that its not public knowledge of their bloated out of control budget/ spending. This place needs real oversight and would probably be shut down if omre stories like this aired. Nothing in that place or in the name of science, justifies the price tag of those materials or having what I imagine is equally overpriced staffers.
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.
@nefariousyawn
Жыл бұрын
I want his job so badly, but mostly because I desperately want to know what "typical diet" srm TASTES like.
@defeatSpace
Жыл бұрын
@@nefariousyawn it tastes like matter
@FlyveHest
Жыл бұрын
A man that truly has found his shelf, I loved his passion also, and he seemed like a great boss
@kevinlandrini6799
Жыл бұрын
it's always great to see someone enjoying what they do isn't it? it's inspiring for sure
@zer0bre
Жыл бұрын
It's the salary... Not the job he's excited about.
Didin't stop NileRed from making his cookie lmao
@al-du6lb
5 ай бұрын
I got a couple minutes into Nile's video and then directly came back here to see if I was correct, and I was..
They're on a 100% item collecting run
NIST also played a pivotal role in standardizing internet communication protocols. Without them, the Internet would be a much more chaotic and much slower
@farrel_ra
Жыл бұрын
Ofc the one who knows it is Indian..
@DefaultName
Жыл бұрын
@@farrel_ra and why is that
@jordan9604
Жыл бұрын
Because the internet was such a chaotic place before national government overwatch?
@brentfisher902
Жыл бұрын
@@jordan9604 Give me an internet run by big government over an internet run by big media, any day.
@freshchoice5177
Жыл бұрын
@@farrel_ra dude stop being racist and dick riding me
Handling a 50 micron spherical ruby single crystal from NIST to calibrate X-ray diffraction equipment has been one of the scariest experiences I ever had as a researcher... I had nightmares about dropping it on the floor and losing it
@falsemcnuggethope
Жыл бұрын
How about accidentally breathing it in, lol
@nidhishshivashankar4885
Жыл бұрын
I don’t even get how you handle something that small, I assume you have special tools to hold it but what’s stopping you from accidentally inhaling it lol
@Ze_Moose
Жыл бұрын
It's kind of like fumbling the at 1 yard line. Go Vikings! 😎
@fredwerza3478
Жыл бұрын
Umm isn't 50 microns less than the width of a human hair ?!?
@Hawk7886
Жыл бұрын
@@Ze_Moose Honestly it's not even remotely close to goofing around with a ball on a field. If you're determined to stick with the football frame of reference, it would be like shooting a football through a cannon a few miles away, detonating a flashbang grenade in your face, and then trying to find the football while in a hurricane.
"so, what do you collect?" "everything." "..."
NIST are the hero's behind the scenes. I've done work in reliability engineering. Theses people deserve all the praise
@napadave58
Ай бұрын
It was a year ago, but: heroes. No apostrophe for plurals. Live and learn.
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!
@soy_red
Жыл бұрын
thanks for this. explains more than I got from the vid
@sootuckchoong7077
Жыл бұрын
Millionaires and billionaires sure buy this peanut butter.
@misterasterisco5217
Жыл бұрын
I feel like the lawyers are to thank for this xD
@sam9239
Жыл бұрын
Gymbro: "Someone said SARMs"
@Darasilverdragon
Жыл бұрын
Do you make flow injection analyzers? Because HACH is kinda leaving us out to dry over in the environmental chem field...
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.
@N.Cognito
Жыл бұрын
That had to be cool to see. It's mind blowing how accurately we can measure things and their work ensures we can do it accurately.
@chucktaylor6939
Жыл бұрын
I could not disagree more
@Deathranger999
Жыл бұрын
@@chucktaylor6939 Why?
@PainflyErect
Жыл бұрын
Do they just let people come look? I'd enjoy seeing that place.
@marquizzo
Жыл бұрын
@@Deathranger999 Don't feed the trolls. They're just looking for unearned attention by saying the opposite of what you'd expect.
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
I work in a polymer manufacturing laboratory and I cannot stress the importance of standards enough! Such an interesting clip!
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!
@bibsp3556
Жыл бұрын
Even weights need to be checked if you're working within fine enough tolerances. It gets even wierder with timing stuff, as thats influenced by the speed its moving. A clock has to be perfectly accurate in a satellite for a gps to work, but they also lose 7 millionths of a second per day or something just because its moving faster.
@charity9660
Жыл бұрын
Girl i am so glad i reread that you said PHARMACIST and THOSE students lmao i was about to say i definitely failed that class! 😂😂😂😂
@goldenhate6649
Жыл бұрын
@@bibsp3556 Its more the fact its further out of earths gravitational field than the speed. The %difference of gravity is more significant than the %difference of the speed of light. But yes, they do lose time and that causes errors in the positioning of the satellite and slowly over time will cause the satellite to give wrong coordinates to a gps if not recalibrated.
@randomname4726
Жыл бұрын
@Golden Hate Space-Time & Gravity are so mind blowing. Simulation theory is getting really interesting too.
@bibsp3556
Жыл бұрын
@@randomname4726 eh, simulation theory to me is more a philosophical question. I've not really seen anything beyond hypothesising that the planc length and speed of light might be some.sort of processor limit, but it's not convinced me really. As the guy said above correctly said though, it's more the gravity, but yeah it's fascinating. Crazy out there
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!
@RevCode
Жыл бұрын
I didn't quite understand the Charpy test: What use is it? Don't they just measure the force required to break that Charpy? How does that measure anything from the manufactured steel? Or is the Charpy made from the steelmill's steel?
@thugpug4392
Жыл бұрын
@@RevCode you have some made from your steel and their steel has all the information known so it lets you test your machine .
@Furiends
Жыл бұрын
@@RevCode It's made from BOTH. You run the test twice as to test your own test. That's what the word calibration means.
@sapandream
Жыл бұрын
@@RevCodein simple word, that Charpy sample is so homogeneous and properly made (according to ISO 148 part-1) that all the Charpy samples prepared in a lot are having almost same results. So if u test one sample and have the result, say 40 joules, and the actual value of the Charpy sample (which is known to these NIST guys, coz they tested it before) is 39 joules, then by statistical analysis it can be found out how perfect your machine is calculating the impact value. Basically comparing apple with another known apple 😂
@RevCode
Жыл бұрын
@@thugpug4392 Oh I see, so they calculate the baseline from the standardized one and then know their steel's strength. If I wasn't so dumb I guess I could have guessed that by the name "reference material" alone - thank you for enlightening me, that was not my brightest moment :)
They prolly got the best weed
@goondudefr
15 күн бұрын
factual
@pugsnhogz
10 күн бұрын
it's actually a standardized amalgamation of all known weed. in other words, it's mids
@ghakim9
10 күн бұрын
I'd digress and say they have the most average weed.
@dunkie5863
10 күн бұрын
go to canada go to any indigenous reserve store that's the best weed
@goondudefr
10 күн бұрын
@@dunkie5863 Michigan or Oklahoma has the best weed by far lmao, every other dispo has fuckin fire in the shelf
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
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.
@caseyneistat345
Жыл бұрын
*🔝🔝🔝Congratulations you have been selected among our lucky winners 🏆🏆 kindly send a message to the telegram above name to claim prize now
@TimorDa
Жыл бұрын
And then there are conspirancy theorists, which know basically nothing, but think they know everything, making the world much worse and chaotic place.
@HeyLeFay
Жыл бұрын
@@TimorDa I see you've read the other comment threads on this video too, lol
@8pija22
Жыл бұрын
@@TimorDa Yeah, it seriously depresses me, the amount of people, especially older people who simply can’t fathom trusting others. I suppose it can be hard. Though as Roger said, it is comforting knowing that there are people who are out there who are extremely skilled, and do what they do for the common good.
@GOREDO5
Жыл бұрын
@8pija well I get most conspiracys are nuts... but you can't deny that many have become truth
Working in the lab of a sewage treatment plant, was interesting for a while, but then became insanely boring, but one neat thing was the fact that the more accurate our scales were, and also our ability to dispense the necessary items for testing, the smaller the test sample could be, and therefore the less of those necessary items would be used as well. Our scale was so accurate that we could weight our fingerprints. We would have elementary school kids tour the plant from time to time, and we would pick one to pickup a beaker while we turned our back, then we could correctly tell them how many fingers they used to pick it up with. We did have to instruct them to use the pads of their fingers not the tips to make it fair, but as long as they played fair, we had a 100% correct “guess”, and the kids absolutely loved it. We also typically picked a kid that was somewhat socially awkward, which made them the big shot hoping to help them socially.
@ricebeansrockroll882
Жыл бұрын
This is so cool!
@ozdoits
Жыл бұрын
❤️
@lindboknifeandtool
Жыл бұрын
This guy gets it ^
@Pudji.Toucan
Жыл бұрын
@@lindboknifeandtool Hey, how's Brian doing now?
@lindboknifeandtool
Жыл бұрын
@@Pudji.Toucan Brian’s great other than idk who that is
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.
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.
I work in an analytical lab here in Brazil and I use a lot of this peanut butter reference material as a quality control for mycotoxins, fatty acids and metal ions in food. It smells so good though! And thanks a lot for these people that work at NIST and make this reference materials. You guys rock!
@autumnalburn
Жыл бұрын
Have you ever tried to taste it?
@unifiedtheoryoflife9922
Жыл бұрын
Except for the 9/11 NIST report, which made such dramatic changes to the structural properties of concrete and steel that, were they true, large swaths of the frozen north would be unable to build structures taller than 3 stories. I wonder if this is the guy that approved the expansion rates of steel and concrete under heat for the 9/11 NIST report?
@Tmktrsf
Жыл бұрын
@@unifiedtheoryoflife9922 there are no high rises in the “frozen north” that you speak of that even closely reaches the height that the trade centres did lmfao
@unifiedtheoryoflife9922
Жыл бұрын
@@Tmktrsf The number is 3 floors - and the north is anything that freezes in the winter. NIST 9/11 report changed the known expansion rate of steel and concrete by so much that you could not buld a 4 story building in Chicago, because the 4th floor would need to be steel, and the steel and concrete apparantly separate under office fire heat, so imagine what 100 degrees the other direction (0F) does. It makes Chicago a one stop light town
@bobson_dugnutt
Жыл бұрын
@@unifiedtheoryoflife9922 reality: a building collapses due to a +500F delta you: hOW CAn BuilDInGs EvEn WiThSTanD a -100F DeLTa TheN? Genius. Besides, contraction vs expansion are different. Materials have different strength in tension vs compression. And when looking at a structure as a whole, crushing the structure vs tearing it apart is pretty different.
I love how literal the names are. No companies no nicknames just "peanut butter", "blueberry", "meat hamogenate"
@googlelocoelgoog
Жыл бұрын
There is a brand that sells named literally as the article itself. Like Water would be named "Water". I think you would like this company and its products lol. It's called No Name and is located in Canada.
@AnonNopleb
Жыл бұрын
@@googlelocoelgoog So, SRMs are kind of the premium products of No Name?
@joeshmoe6566
Жыл бұрын
fucked up in the crib eating "meat hamogenate" 😩
@electrogestapo
Жыл бұрын
It's like walking into a grocery store in a world that has marketing outlawed.
@darksunrise957
Жыл бұрын
@@electrogestapo I could see that as a good thing, sometimes.
This is so amazing. Mundane but so perplexed at the same time. Kudos to the team at NIST & to you for bringing this to light.
the guys that work there seem genuinely happy & enthusiastic. nice to see.
As someone working in the steel industry, I can vouch for the importance of the steel standard reference material.
@y_fam_goeglyd
Жыл бұрын
My dad was a steelworker for about 40 years. They sent him to get qualified as a metallurgist before taking up his head foreman role. It's a fascinating subject! As a one-time geology student, I found the identification of the ores to be really interesting. Maybe his own real interest in the subject is where my son got his inbuilt fascination for chemistry (he's now a PhD medical biochemist! He's way, _way_ smarter than me lol!).
@tracyfollowell6747
Жыл бұрын
@@y_fam_goeglyd If your child is better and smarter than you you did a fantastic job!
@wernerbkerner9690
Жыл бұрын
@@tracyfollowell6747 I disagree. Raising smarter chlidren won't change a thing in the world. Raising kinder children MIGHT improve the world.
@clothes5049
Жыл бұрын
@@wernerbkerner9690 Why not both?
@mikewurlitzer5217
Жыл бұрын
Then the steel industry should fund it not the taxpayer who must fund a government which has run us $30+ Trillion in debt.
The director of NIST seems to me to be one of the most approachable and likeable civil servants of whom I've ever had any exposure. You're a cool dude, sir! Your general state of apparent happiness is enviable.
@billted3323
Жыл бұрын
He did seem too happy. Something is up with him
@CS-zb7hx
Жыл бұрын
@@billted3323 Or.... or. He's a nerd who likes his job.
@billted3323
Жыл бұрын
@@CS-zb7hx Thats the vanilla theory , But something dosen't smell right
@stylo8845
Жыл бұрын
7:43
@haloslayer33
Жыл бұрын
@@stylo8845 i noticed that too
I was TMDE in the Marine Corps for a few years, and this was something I learned existed. National Standards and why we have them. Pretty interesting stuff; great video!!
Strangely comforting to know this exists. A big government bunker full of things that define what those things are, by a standard. Some things cannot be standardized though :(
@H8nji
10 ай бұрын
Be pretty boring if everything *could* be standardized
@ligma212
7 ай бұрын
@@H8njibut good to have standards uwu
@H8nji
7 ай бұрын
@@ligma212 Having standards =/= being standardized. We have standards for people’s behaviour but we don’t expect everyone to act the same way. Also, what’s an “uwu?” Just a shot in the dark, but is it an onomatopoeia used by terminally online degenerates who believe that everything, regardless of its nature, should be veiled under a layer of cuteness much like how Japan puts on a socially cohesive facade to masquerade its underlying social problems? Or am I being too cynical, passive-aggressive, and “it’s not that deep bro?”
@gigachin4181
6 ай бұрын
@@H8njiI have a feeling YOU spend too much time online yourself, over analyzing a damn emoji and all mate.
@H8nji
6 ай бұрын
@@gigachin4181 Nah but it's cringe as hell when people use animal noises in discussions that don't revolve around furry role-play sex.
One of my favorite things about NIST is that the roads of their main campus are aligned to be parallel with lines of latitude and longitude. It's particularly noticeable on maps, as it doesn't mesh with the surrounding roads.
@warpigs9069
Жыл бұрын
I want to work there now
@StevenSkoczen
Жыл бұрын
Have any kind of citation/reference/location? A quick look on google earth didn't find anything like that. Would love to see it!
@pseudotasuki
Жыл бұрын
@@StevenSkoczen Try the full name: National Institute of Standards and Technology It's located in Gaithersburg, MD.
@scottfw7169
Жыл бұрын
Looking at map and seeing NIST Sound Building, which I guess deals in standard sounds. Satellite view shows intersection of Sound Road and West Drive is torn up, so does that mean NIST offers a Standard Traffic Obstruction? Hmm, there is a NIST Child Care Center, do they have Standard Children?
@LouiseFranksArt
Жыл бұрын
I wish all places were aligned like that LOL
One of those things we take for granted...... but if you stop and think about how big, wide and "standardized" the world is, it's amazing. It makes it possible to eat some manufactured food and then wait 10 years, travel to another part of the world and eat the same food and have the exact same experience. I remember a local craft brewer saying he had a lot of respect for Budweiser for making millions of gallons of beer, over the course of decades and having it always be consistent and predictable.
@9ZERO6
Жыл бұрын
I made a snarky comment about Budweiser beer to a well skilled craft brewmaster during a tour a few years ago. He immediatly informed me that Budweiser is actually a fantastically brewed beer for this exact reason. Humbling moment.
@vwr32jeep
Жыл бұрын
@@9ZERO6 Budweiser is fantastically brewed piss water if anything. Utter trash. The fact that they can reproduce garbage to such an exact standard doesn’t impress me. It caters to a brand loyalty crowd and little more.
@thisrandomdude2846
Жыл бұрын
@@9ZERO6 What exactly did you say? I hope you remember :)
@RS-xq6je
Жыл бұрын
I can't stand budweiser it's too weak tastes like sparkling water
@9ZERO6
Жыл бұрын
@@vwr32jeep sounds like you could use a beer man.
I had a good chuckle when I watched this episode. In the 90's the laboratory I worked at ordered a sample of the reference limestone from the NIST. Some where along the way the one unit turned in to many. All total there was about 1/2 a cubic metre of boxes in the middle of the lab floor. We returned most of the reference limestone. A short time later I received a phone call stating that reference limestone could not be ship because it was deemed hazardous material as it had "lime" in it.
Oh my god, I love how you got those smooth shots of the warehouse! Being pushed on a wheelie chair, brilliant!
It's amazing how complex our world is and how we depend on systems that 99.9999% of us have no idea exist and can't possible be thankful for. Thanks for giving me this knowledge and sharing such important research with the world Derek. :)
@anntakamaki1960
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, that is pretty interesting. Even something you are an expert in is based on a totally different thing you might have not much idea about. Eg- a software developer might not have great knowledge on how computers are working behind the scenes, meanwhile a computer engineer will. These computer engineers might not fully understand how the materials they use (semiconductors) work but the material scientist will. This is just one example. Even for something less ‘hi tech’ there is so much that is done by others we don’t understand fully how they work, we just know what it does and how to use it. This is good so different people can become experts in different areas via specialisation.
@invertedflow
Жыл бұрын
@@anntakamaki1960 As a software dev myself, I can relate :)
@robwoodring9437
Жыл бұрын
@@anntakamaki1960 reminds me of a stand up comedy bit about how dumb the avg person is. "We're not smart. We just use stuff made by smart people". The big punchline was "if I sent you into the woods with a hatchet and a lighter, how many years till you could send me an email?"
@laupoke
Жыл бұрын
It's terryfying
@jmiller6066
Жыл бұрын
Yep - my father is a soil chemist that runs quality control programs for soil testing labs. There's way more of these labs than you think, because they're used by farmers to determine what kind of fertilizer to put on their fields (among many other things). What's fascinating is that because the QC program is so large, the excess soil is highly desirable by labs to use as reference and calibration material for equipment. And that's how he ended up selling buckets of dirt internationally.
As someone who worked at NIST for a while doing metrology and spectroscopy, I can tell you. That place is freaking awesome. The impact it has on the world is really quite incredible.
@user-ih6we9kq2q
Жыл бұрын
NDA notwithstanding
@TooRiskyHD
Жыл бұрын
Not to be rude but how does collecting human turds then breaking it down to dust help the planet?
@mynt4033
Жыл бұрын
In an ideal future, they'd be shielded from budget cuts. But republicans are likely to retake and cut funding to them without any care for the appreciation of the sciences.
@tokin420nchokin
Жыл бұрын
@@TooRiskyHD standards for measurements are critical. When the industrial revolution kicked off standardization became critical between industries. Gauge blocks were born as a means for checking measurements against one another quickly. I dont know if that was the first "standard" but it is necessary for there to be standards out there otherwise we would be doing a lot of guessing. That rotor you bought to replace your breaks might be too big or too small, the holes maybe got drilled incorrectly. Hope you understand the necessity for standards based on those couple examples.
@TooRiskyHD
Жыл бұрын
@@tokin420nchokin yeh it makes sense to have matrix of something infact it’s smart I just never understood the poop part but you’ve went into detail about and it actually explains a lot I appreciate that thank you!
Fascinating! Also: I love Nerds! And the Scientist/Videographer is a hoot. Love his smile as he’s filming and asking questions.
I learned two things today. 1. These people's work is definitely underrated. Now I understand how some foods and products can exist for years and taste the same. Consistency is key and these people are definitely helping with that. 2. I'm never eating peanut butter anymore. 😅 Never again.
@lastyhopper2792
Жыл бұрын
would you still eat peanut though?
@voguyrus
Жыл бұрын
Why aren't you eating peanut butter anymore?
@Bildad1976
Жыл бұрын
Everything you buy to eat is allowed to have a tiny, yet measurable, proportion of various disgusting contaminants such as cockroach heads (and other insect parts), rat poop, rat hairs, mold, mites... even maggots (ugh), and "other foreign matter".
@ncalisnotenough
Жыл бұрын
@@voguyrus probably the calorie content
@emmacornejo6392
Жыл бұрын
Pb2!!
I have been worried for so long about how there wasn't a real chemical definition of what the kinds of food we eat are because I didn't know NIST existed, but now I can eat in peace knowing there is a standard jar of peanut butter out there that the peanut butter I'm eating should at least have been made in reference to.
@michelleholman4287
Жыл бұрын
SURELY YOU JEST!
@hoyounlee9193
Жыл бұрын
@@michelleholman4287 Am I missing something? I am beyond confused
@zen8704
Жыл бұрын
@@hoyounlee9193 Translation: Surely you’re being sarcastic
@hoyounlee9193
Жыл бұрын
@@zen8704 got that part, but in regards to what?
@zen8704
Жыл бұрын
@@hoyounlee9193 in regards to the fact that most people wouldn’t ever genuinely worry about a standardized jar of pb?
Well this answered a years-old question I've always had about nutrition standards. Glad I found this randomly in my feed.
I took a few classes in college where we used mass spectrometry to determine the amount of caffeine in various coffees
I interned at NIST in 2018 and saw the standard jar of peanut butter among lots of other things. It’s really cool to see the organization being covered here since they’re so important to so many businesses!
@KJ4EZJ
Жыл бұрын
Please tell me you made a PB&J with one, lol.
@elijanzen4015
Жыл бұрын
@@KJ4EZJ Unfortunately not. Like the guy said in the video, none of the standards are for human consumption, but I was and still am very curious about how it would taste
@fredwerza3478
Жыл бұрын
Just imagine the first day on the job and some intern is cracking open a $1000 jar of peanut butter to make a PB&J sandwich 🤣
@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721
Жыл бұрын
@@fredwerza3478 "No, not the good peanut butter! Use the jar in the break room!"
There’s a great story you’re (usually) told during NIST orientation for new employees about the Great Baltimore fire of 1904. Lots of FDs from surrounding municipalities and states came to try to help, but at the time, there was no industrial standard for hoses/couplings, so it turned into quite a mess, and more injuries and damage arguably resulted. Those items are now standardized across the country. The HR folks are better storytellers, but still demonstrates the importance of the work of standardization
@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721
Жыл бұрын
Standards are something that you don't realize you need unless you don't have them.
@Luchoedge
Жыл бұрын
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 Things you can say about your work and also about your ex!
@ylstorage7085
Жыл бұрын
Then proceeds with "let's use Imperial units". Didn't you people dumped tea and fought a war to get rid of the "imperial" stuff?!
@JoseRodriguez-ey7ju
Жыл бұрын
@@ylstorage7085this is the dumbest comment i've read in a while, also we use metric in the united states alongside imperial units
@jiaan100
Жыл бұрын
They should tell the story about how people quit nist and joined architects and engineers for 9/II truth because of the fake garbage they made them produce.
This is really interesting. How very important this is. Just amazing. Thank you to everyone working so hard at NIST.
I've never come across something more mundane and more fascinating than this video.
This man loves his job and I am so happy he's around to do it.
@-Sean_
Жыл бұрын
I'm happy that you're happy that he's happy!
@thicc_astley
Жыл бұрын
happy loop 😁
@barry5
Жыл бұрын
@@-Sean_ im happy that you're happy that he's happy that he's happy!
@the__void__spaghetti__girl
Жыл бұрын
if a job is fun, the worker will be happy. most jobs are not fun =/
As someone who poops, I can vouch for the importance of a standard poop sample
@brianarbenz1329
Жыл бұрын
I poop too! We're part of the brotherhood.
@nobrien22
Жыл бұрын
Here here. I also poop, and have many times contributed my part to the great, strained effort to achieve new levels of poop standardization.
@anmolagrawal5358
Жыл бұрын
Woah, such coincidences, I happen to poop as well!
@hi-mj5oi
Жыл бұрын
@@anmolagrawal5358 bro everyone does
@hi-mj5oi
Жыл бұрын
@@nobrien22 dude everyone poops
For several years, I worked right across the street from NIST in Gaithersburg, but I never knew that they had a warehouse in there! I certainly am aware of what they're doing in general, but was completely oblivious of this. Neat!
Another important question would is: How do they ensure the products dont degrade over time? Some contents like vitamins are really volatile. Also: Over time the composition of things like house dust etc. changes as we use different materials at home (new types of plastic, etc.)
@beardiemom
Жыл бұрын
It depends on the vitamins and for most vitamins, there are more and less shelf-stable compounds, so I'd assume they use more stable compounds and likely do have expiration dates on less shelf-stable items. As for things like the house dust, those are probably dated by year, if not month and year and they likely have more than one version. Not to forget that those samples aren't being used directly to identify problem areas, but are only made to calibrate the machines that are used to analyse samples, so they don't necessarily need to contain every potential contaminate. If there are a few different plastics in the house dust calibration sample, that should give a good reference as to whether the machines are able to detect carbon-hydrogen-polymers. Even if it isn't the exact plastic that was found in the sample from NIST, all plastics are essentially made from the same materials.
@g0d5m15t4k3
Жыл бұрын
They definitely have storage directions. Like the animal and tissue samples in the liquid nitrogen. Ya can't just pop that in your fridge when you get home.
I love how in the shot at 7:30 you can see a reflection of Derek being pushed in an office chair in the shiny shelves, a great improvised dolly.
Analytical chemist here. From academic research to drug development to drug safety testing, every position I've ever worked makes heavy use of NIST standards (though usually all with their own internal acronyms). These are absolutely vital for almost any calibration or measurement which requires high degrees of certainty.
Thank you for showing science in action with exceptional production values, superior dialogues, excellent editing, and great videography. You've created and produced one of the world's best introductions to the essentials of science, engineering, and technology. Well-written, well-produced: 5-star one and all, so far. Thank you! PS: is there a National Bureau of Standards offical "crap-load" measurement, as described? Is that a unit of domestic waste volume or mass? Perhaps it's related to the classic "RCH" measurement of sub-millimeter distances by rocket technicans (RCH = Red C_ _ t Hair, a unit of measurement)
I am from South Africa, and one of the recent articles I read pointed out that our government has defined a new standard to define a Boerewors (Famous South African 'sausage'). I could not understand why this was necessary; this video just made me realise why that is.
I love how that guy has a whole list of jokes he's hoping he gets to tell at any given moment 😂
@pearlwhite7157
Жыл бұрын
😄😄😄
@financialdecimation
Жыл бұрын
a list of standard jokes for the standard items
@laughingbeast4481
Жыл бұрын
@@financialdecimation So he can accuratelly measure response. This is also where they order canned laughter from. Only thanks to them they can add just the right dose on laugh track or be certain they read test audiences' reaction accurately. (Test audiences of course consist of standard moviegoers. Those are stored frozen coz being exposed to outside influences they change their taste incredibly quickly.)
@trentp151
Жыл бұрын
When government wastes trillions of dollars every year, it MUST be made into a joke, so that people don't cry.
@jamescerven4400
Жыл бұрын
@@trentp151 nist is useful, but I agree government has lots of waste lol
Thank you for highlighting the important work the team at NIST performs. A fine example of functional government and a team dedicated to their work.
@adamscrivener9574
Жыл бұрын
This system ends up making everything they control more expensive for the consumer, and gives the consumer less choice. Among many other glaring issues. We can have transparency and certificates etc without total government control. Functional force is still force.
@dma736
Жыл бұрын
@@adamscrivener9574 I think you may be confusing the NIST with a regulatory body. NIST is a science laboratory setup by Congress to bring US standards up to world standard at the time. Trusted standards allow for improved safety, quality, and a plethora of other things. How the standards are to be applied and who enforces them is another ball of wax.
@MC-yt1uv
Жыл бұрын
@@adamscrivener9574 I don't think you understand what NIST is. Without them, businesses would have to spend more money when trying to calibrate their equipment. Also, just from a broader perspective outside of what NIST does, regulation is necessary. We tried giving businesses free rein during the early 20th century and a bunch of kids lost arms in factory equipment. Businesses have no concern other than money they will hurt or exploit people for profit if left to their own devices.
@CRneu
Жыл бұрын
@@adamscrivener9574 You clearly fall into the weird "GOVERNMENT BAD, NO EXCEPTIONS" camp. Free market capitalism is a race to the bottom. Capitalism needs standards and regulation. These standards save a ton of money and save a lot of lives. I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that it makes things more expensive or gives less choice. That makes zero sense. Even with regulations and standards, companies are constantly caught cutting corners which often times result in a loss of life. NIST is a service that is invaluable to the global economy.
@fredwerza3478
Жыл бұрын
@@adamscrivener9574 it's amazing how much propaganda and disinformation that Trumpers like you are spreading
How you described these amazing people just shows you are a great person
Amazing. Standards of units and measure protocols turned into to an interesting video. I really hope you get your own syndicated TV series.
I am not a science nerd or in any profession that depends on this kind of information and I was fascinated and amazed by this information. Thanks for making this available to your average little old lady. We are never too old to learn.
@randomname4726
Жыл бұрын
I love your name! Lol
@karadan100
Жыл бұрын
Yeah me too. My mind was blown. Really well put together video too. Veritasium is great.
@madhououinkyoma
6 ай бұрын
I wonder if they have an average old lady sample
@thecrone7964
6 ай бұрын
@@madhououinkyoma - well if they do not - as it happens - I have made arrangements to donate my entire body to science when I die - so - they can have their bit for the good of the world - if it is needed. I do hope they do not come to think of it - because that would mean there is a human component to any number of products - like hot dogs.
I like how human civilization eventually came up with such a system. We frequently do not realize how amazing some of these quality of life things are since we're so used to it being a background part of our everyday lives (which is good)
@1cont
Жыл бұрын
I disagree. It merely complicates a system needlessly. Do you not know what is in peanut butter? Do you not know what a fish is?
@farrel_ra
Жыл бұрын
@@1cont tell that when u have liver cancer since ur peanut butter producer doesn't have a good standard for how much aflatoxin they had in their mixture of peanut butter
@1cont
Жыл бұрын
@@farrel_ra yeah right. The peanuts are what make your liver sick. Not the alcohol and the decades of sugary diet. You morons deserve to be sick if you think the government is keeping you healthy.
@goodiesohhi
Жыл бұрын
@@1cont This is probably the dumbest and most ignorant comment I have seen in years. Did you not watch the video? 99% of the people who watch the video will realize how insanely important organizations like NIST are. You have to be the top 1% of bruh moment to not get this imo.
@1cont
Жыл бұрын
@@goodiesohhi I watched the whole video. Needless complication. Just as I stated. If you are too stupid to know that grinding up peanuts makes peanut butter, then you are stupid enough to be impressed with such needless complication.
amazing video exposing us to the people that do invisible yet crucially important work!
This is the weirdest but totally makes sense thing I've learned YTD. Thank you!
As someone who basically did the same thing for several years, just across the pond (Germany), I'm so glad this important field of research finally get some coverage. The federal institution I used to work for provides the reference alloys for Euro coins, alcohol in water (calibrate breathalyzer's), also a lot of food and environmental samples with toxins or heavy metals and much more. I worked in the food team and alongside homogenization, stability is one of the major concerns. Grinding it into a nice powder is great for homogenization, but simultaneously creates so much surface area for chemical reactions. And even though they are not used as a food, you don't wanna an Oil to become rancid and so on. So many products are stored in a freezer, but what to do if e.g. the cold chain is broken during transport? The devil is in the detail^^ And that's even before you come to the most difficult question: How to make sure NIST and all the other CRM providers are able to measure correctly themselves? :D
@AxMi-24
Жыл бұрын
That's where intercomparisons come into play. Also a reason why it's important that every reference is implemented by several national labs. When you are alone with a reference (as is the case with some of what PTB is doing) it's very difficult to be confident that you have not messed something up ;)
@stefankuttenreich8668
Жыл бұрын
how is this institution called in germany?
@AxMi-24
Жыл бұрын
@@stefankuttenreich8668 PTB, Short for Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
@jordan9604
Жыл бұрын
These are some of the problems that we in the bio fisheries face. You have to take into account the influx and outflow of water and what that water holds. We take our shipping containers almost too seriously. Wipe out all life inside the bag, measure what the water does to the bag and vice versa. Then place the fish into the bag, measure and record. For everything, and I mean like a full 2 days worth of testing for a single fish. Meanwhile that 1 single fish has required about 150 hours of work just to maintain a stable environment. Then when you ask for $3500 for a fish that someone could throw a net out in the river and catch thousands in an hour... Cheezus.. Some people just don't care to realize the effort that was put forth and call just to complain about the price for a perfect lab fish. They don't want one, just call to criticize us for the price of a river minnow. They want a dozen for $10. Sorry, we are not that kind of business.
@TheRealStructurer
Жыл бұрын
Thanks, answered my question if there are other countries doing the same 👍🏻
Met a guy on a game I was playing the other day who was an airbag engineer. One of the most down to earth people I’ve ever had the joy of interacting with, although our interaction was brief. It’s always the most important things you forget has to be thought of, designed, created, tested, redesigned again and again until it was just okay enough.
@samthunders3611
Жыл бұрын
OK enough.. Sounds great
@LabGecko
Жыл бұрын
@@samthunders3611 For scientists perfect does not exist. That's what standards are for - _"Does this system or object meet the standards to do the job?"_ Stuff like NIST is why you can buy a bag of concrete, follow the directions, and actually get the same results as the factory did. Or brownie mix, or any number of most of the things we buy today.
@samthunders3611
Жыл бұрын
@@LabGecko I'm a chef bakerbwho was also involved with the manufacturing industry There's nothing you can tell me And you dint want to hear a quarter of the things I know It's all bussness no matter what's being sold
@flexinclouds
Жыл бұрын
Hopefully he works for "Takata".. so they dont have to keep recalling, already recalled & "fixed" airbags. Like the one in my Subaru WRX
Thank you for this. I literally had no idea about NIST and the awesome stuff they are doing
I often wondered how they calibrate stuff and assumed they must have a standard reference system. Yet another curiosity resolved by Derek! Thanks dude!
@g0d5m15t4k3
Жыл бұрын
You've heard of standard weights and measurements? NIST took that idea and just *ran* with it.
Great work, Derek, as always. True story: Back in the early 70s I worked in a radio maintenance shop at McConnell AFB, Ks and some of the radios we maintained were in the HF band (3 - 30 MHz). The NIST runs a radio station call sign WWV which operates on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and continuously broadcasts the current time. We used to tune the radios to WWV to confirm that they were tuning properly. We also would set our watches to WWV so we always had very accurate time on our watches. One evening the wife and I were in a mall window shopping (as a junior enlisted we didn't have the money to actually BUY anything) when some guy asked me for the time. I told him the time to the second. He said "That isn't right!" To which I replied, "Yes it is. I set my watch by WWV just this morning." "What's WWV?", he asked. " It's the national time standard. You know? The same folks who establish the standards for everything in the U.S." I told him. He then asked, "What makes THAT right?" Honestly, I didn't have a comeback. How would you answer someone who questions the National Institute of Standards and Technology? (I'm really hoping you answer my question. I was at a loss.)
@keithklassen5320
Жыл бұрын
Lol. Nothing, in a sense. It's just a reliable institution that everyone can go to to help them synchronize their devices that need to be synchronized. You could make your own competing timekeeping service, but good luck making it as reliable, so nobody would bother with it if they really *needed* it.
@shinyshinyyshinyyy2197
Жыл бұрын
It’s funny, because there really isn’t anything that makes it right. It’s like how the standard weight of a gram is just a little hunk of metal in a lab and everyone agrees “yeah that’s a gram” because who else is defining a gram? Or how most world currencies only have value due to the people agreeing that they do. It’s a little arbitrary, but it negates arbitration. Which is weird lmao
@billkurek5576
Жыл бұрын
Thus,the phrase “does anybody really know what time it is. Does anybody really care ?”
@Furiends
Жыл бұрын
In some cases a standard is just an authority meaning we simply have to agree to not disagree. But in fact most standards have agreeable metrics. Ones that would cost more to derive in our own sample than it would to buy a NIST sample and test that. These standards also should be designed so they give you some useful information. Note how NIST only makes these samples at the request of companies.
@herculesrockefeller8969
Жыл бұрын
A little Googling would have revealed that NIST uses THE time standard, a Cesium Atomic clock.
The fact that this kind of thing exists and functions just freakin blew my mind
So when Nile did his pure cookie video... he bit into a cookie made of extremely old ingredients.... welp at least he didnt swallow.
this just might be the crappiest product ive ever seen
@superjumpbros64
Жыл бұрын
Indeed, indeed
@windowsxpmemesandstufflol
Жыл бұрын
Nice
@MrUssy101
Жыл бұрын
This guy thinks he clever and has big brain and should eduecate us all??? He sounds so condescending!!!
@Speedwars
Жыл бұрын
hey it’s mr red stone
@Menaceblue3
Жыл бұрын
Andy Sixx agrees
As a NIST Guest Researcher, it is so cool to see you visit our institution that too few know about!
@theabuzerbharuchi
Жыл бұрын
U r doing a great job. Dont ever feel worthless that many people dont know about these things . Becoz of people like u , our society is functioning well.
@JoesWebPresence
Жыл бұрын
@@theabuzerbharuchi . . . except when it comes to steel framed building collapse
I love Steve Choquette. He seems to genuinely love his job. Both how it generates a profit, but also how it benefits the world. He's also very much aware of how ridiculous the job appears at first glance. He's not defensive. He embraces the absurdity. At the end of the video, when asked how much human feces was collected to be powered and measured, he simply said, "a crap load." Good stuff.
Awesome video! The domestic sludge reminded me of when my Environmental Science class went on a field trip to a waste treatment facility. It was actually really interesting and my anosmia came in handy too lol!
There are also groups trying NOT to standardize things. The most troubling being the vitamin industry. Vitamins in the USA and Canada have no standards so vitamins can have whatever in them. Some even don't contain the vitamin on the label at all. It just goes to show why standards are important.
@bleeka325
Жыл бұрын
They need to be regulated before they can be standardized
@HappyDragneels_page
Жыл бұрын
thats ridiculously insane lmao, how on earth doesnt this fall under some other legislation? false advertising etc
@systrex
Жыл бұрын
"Suppliments"
@bleeka325
Жыл бұрын
@@HappyDragneels_page it’s not false advertising when the company indicates that the claims have not been evaluated by the FDA
@happyfase
Жыл бұрын
Vitamins can't be standardised because vitamins aren't vitamins.
Veritasium a day keeps ignorance away. Thanks for making amazing stuff for so long now.
@Bonu5epic
Жыл бұрын
- 🤓
@nezukochan471
Жыл бұрын
@@Bonu5epic -🤓
@MrUssy101
Жыл бұрын
Disagree This guy thinks he clever and has big brain and should eduecate us all??? He sounds so condescending!!!
@bbbaoyiii8653
Жыл бұрын
yesss!!!
@Samuel-7418
Жыл бұрын
@@nezukochan471 - 🤓🤓
I remember taking a field trip to NIST and hitting up Dogfish Head brewery. Amazing place
I've seen you using the molecular modeling objects, but could not figure out what they were called or where to find them. Snatoms! And you invented them! So cool...
i love how excited the man is explaining all of it. he seems very interested in what he does.
*"a standard jar of peanut butter"* sounds like something the 'Millionaire Who Lost Everything But Is Slowly Learning To Appreciate The Simple Things In Life' character in a movie would try to buy the first time they go grocery shopping by themselves.
This entire concept is amazing. Rather than speculating about the invisible laws of the universe or what lies far away in space, being able to understand the things we interact with on a day-to-day basis seems strangely way cooler to me.
@KalebPeters99
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, it brings all the science right back to every day reality. Such an awesome window into our world
@rubiks6
Жыл бұрын
So much more meaningful to human existence than measuring galaxies billions of lightyears away.
@rubiks6
Жыл бұрын
@Nad Senoj - The things NIST is doing are quite obviously beneficial to humanity. I'm going to need some real convincing why looking at barely discernable images of galaxies 13 billion lightyears away really helps mankind. The things NIST is doing are important and helpful right here and right now.
@0777coco
Жыл бұрын
i wouldn't agree that it sounds way cooler lol, but it's a field of research i didn't expect to be so interesting for sure
@Crazytesseract
Жыл бұрын
"What's is the ultimate origin of everything that exists?" Is this not a question worth pondering on?
When he says "I wouldn't recommend eating it" because the peanut butter may be very old, that suggests a problem. When a perishable item "goes off" that is because of a chemical reaction of some kind (possibly from oxidation, or just biological contamination). In order for that jar of peanut butter to be a standard for the calibration of equipment, shouldn't it be 1 to 1 identical to the product that you are trying to produce? If the oils in it have gone rancid due to age, then how can it be a viable benchmark?
@zach3096
Жыл бұрын
Well said
@Wicker_
3 күн бұрын
I imagine the one they show off to people is just for show.
That’s so interesting. I didn’t know that companies had to check simple things thoroughly.
This video explained how so many things work. People would say they found trace amounts of a certain chemical in a city's water supply, and you'd think "How?" well this is very enlightening. Also always wondered how in shows like CSI they could tell if a bullet was fired from a specific firearm. This is what i subscribed for.
@codybarrett462
Жыл бұрын
Nah, you’re just stupid dude. A majority of people know that already….
@HeyLeFay
Жыл бұрын
Also, in relation to your specific example about the water supply, a lot of places periodically take samples of their water and store it for later for purposes like that!
A friend of mine once said: “Better than perfect is standardised”. This video shows that that’s true. Great video! Keep up the good work :)
@teslacoil5378
Жыл бұрын
@gridsleep Standards are perfect because they are standard (thus why SRMs are used as references to determine product integrity), and they are standard because we have deemed them to be adequate enough for a certain product. They are a PERFECT template to ensure the quality of a certain product. So I say that perfection is quite definable.
@shoam2103
Жыл бұрын
I remember that quote from a technology connections video!
@craigmays3098
Жыл бұрын
Z89om
@m.i.andersen8167
Жыл бұрын
Yes. Standards are great. Let's have a lot more of them! 😊
@m.i.andersen8167
Жыл бұрын
@@teslacoil5378 Absolutely right! And one can say that standard dust collected in an American standard city is only standard in the US. Global dust must be collected globally, but that probably wouldn't make much sense, except for aliens collecting dust to make "standard inhabited planet dust"
Damn, I was aware of the important work NIST does, but apparently had no idea how many standards they maintain. That's amazing.
This is one of my favourite videos of yours, ever! Soooo interesting, and I learned things I never thought about that now gives me immense satisfaction just knowing. Thank you, Derek & the wonderful people at NIST!
I work in a geochemical analysis lab, and standards really are a critical part of our work, letting us find, diagnose and correct any errors and deviations and confirm when data is on point. Thanks, NIST, for your tireless diligent work!
@elliottthompson5455
Жыл бұрын
@@PersonalStash420 just because someone may be paid to do a job doesn’t mean you can’t be appreciative and thankful of their work.
@fourdoorsmorehoes
Жыл бұрын
@@PersonalStash420 Soldiers, doctors, and firemen are also paid for their work.
@tmo2798
Жыл бұрын
@@PersonalStash420 "Fighting for a country" is silly. It's also impossible. it's a super silly idea to oversimplify a violent scheme.
@geddon436
Жыл бұрын
@@PersonalStash420 Why do you believe fireman and cops get paid enough?
A legitimate government function. It's wonderful to see how serious they take their role. And a great story too!
@fredricksfishkeeping3007
Жыл бұрын
NIST is probably the coolest agency people don’t know about. Not only do they do this, but they have hardcore experimental physicists building the most accurate atomic clocks in the world to standardize timekeeping.
@lysanderhoppe765
Жыл бұрын
These products seem to be in high demand. Why would you need the government for this?
@miguelangelmartinezcasado8935
Жыл бұрын
@@lysanderhoppe765 you want 1 standard. Not 2, not 3 not 5. Just one where everyone has the same error margins so there's no confusion. And if it were a company, then they would increase the price. And a lot of products would cost more because of that bloated price in calibration. So... Why would you want a company? Without competition companies aren't better than goverment
@reeman2.0
Жыл бұрын
"legitimate" they're selling your poo.
@JonMartinYXD
Жыл бұрын
@@miguelangelmartinezcasado8935 Exactly. Why don't we have colour fax machines? Well, we do, except every manufacturer made their own "standard" for it and insisted that anyone else who wanted to use the same "standard", pay for it. So Acme colour fax machines can only send colour faxes to other Acme colour fax machines. Compare this to Wi-Fi, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards: one standard that any company can develop a product to use and know that it will be able to interoperate with billions of other devices out there. Having one free to use standard lowers the cost of entry into a market, enabling competition and innovation.
This was genuinely so interesting. I didn't know this was a thing! I love how passionate that guy was about his work but how do people even know they want to do this kind of thing as a career?
@tamaramendelson1634
5 күн бұрын
I assume they just know that they like science, so they study chemistry in college and then grad school, and along the way as they get more into the different rabbitholes of chemistry they start to learn about this type of thing existing
7:36 love the reflection of you on the office char being pushed through the ware house :D
I'm a medical lab tech, and I find NIST to be fascinating. We use standards (we call it QC) to make sure that our analyzers and methods are working properly and giving accurate results so that you get the care you need next time you're in a hospital. Our stuff's not cheap either.
@thedoctorbowtie
7 ай бұрын
Im a tech in a lab who makes QC materials for hematology chemistry and bodyfluid analyzers! Wonder if you use any of the controls we make!
@PartyhatRS
7 ай бұрын
Can you sell me some "analytical" flurazepam or midazolam Lol
I’ve worked at NIST and many other research labs ( university, industry, etc). Scientists at NIST are the most meticulous by far.
@slothymango
10 ай бұрын
Interesting
@Spartan2155
7 ай бұрын
Have you seen the arguments that A&E911 has made against NIST and there statements about building 7? In my opinion NIST and our government still have alot of explaining to do about the demolition of the three towers that day. Your statement about scientists being most meticulous made me comment.. If you didn't catch it I think nist is dogwash
@AmhedMissaelVargasVelazquez
5 ай бұрын
How do people at NIST account for things that change their composition with the time? e.g. metals that rust by oxidation or wine/cheeses that "ages"?
@jessehackett7886
5 ай бұрын
I’m a chemist in a consumer goods testing lab, how in the world do you get that job? It’s so fascinating to me
@rallymaniac92
3 ай бұрын
Even as an analytical chemist, where being meticulous about everything is essential to everything I do at work, I could never match the level of NIST scientists. The methods they use are absolutely top notch and I'm grateful for their work. I don't believe my lab buys NIST standards as we're not in the US, but I rely the NIST mass spectral libraries every single day.
I just can’t get over how great these names are
Imagine how much of a breakthrough it would be if this facility was discovered in the future where they may not know about us much
I was so confused at first but it makes total sense. Reminds me of that video you made on that perfect spherical ball that's our reference standard for weight. I calibrate lasers at my job and we have to check customers laser trackers against our reference tracker and if the results are outside of 0.0003mm we have to re-tune them. It's pretty neat. (Edit: I had originally said 0.00003 microns but it's .0003mm or .3 microns)
@caiocc12
Жыл бұрын
0.00003 microns would be 30 picometers (0.03 nanometers). That's less than an atom. Are you working on LISA?
@ahetzel9054
Жыл бұрын
@@caiocc12 I think I added an extra zero lol. But there are different specs for different companies & trackers since everyone uses the trackers differently so some allow for larger margins of error. It's pretty neat but honestly I'm not quite that knowledgeable yet, only been here 4 months and I'm just an art school drop out who got lucky(my brother works here as an engineer tech)
@longnamedude3947
Жыл бұрын
@@ahetzel9054 Stick at that job and you will go places, such opportunities are incredibly rare and I will admit that I am a little jealous of what you get to do as a job, but, I am equally glad that you are doing a job that you seem to genuinely enjoy doing which is always a positive. Work hard and you'll be set for life.
@pyropulseIXXI
Жыл бұрын
That ball is not used as a reference. They don't use artifacts to define weight, and that ball was a candidate for defining the kilogram, but they went with a procedural definition using a watt balance and defining physical constants
@ahetzel9054
Жыл бұрын
@@pyropulseIXXI I think that went over my head lol. I thought that ball was the standard for 1 kilogram but it wasn't based on it's weight and instead the amount of atoms or molecules that it was made of? Or something like that? That video was a while ago so I don't entirely remember
Superb video!! And that´s just the tip of the iceberg regarding reference materials manufacturing.
I used to live around the corner of their building in MD growing up, always wondered what they did there but never looked it up and this video was randomly suggested.
Absolutely fascinating. I had never even really considered the need for any of these things, and now it seems so obvious... Incredible video yet again, Derek.
I've been following your channel for like 10 years and this right here is a holy grail video. I have had this EXACT question (the one this video answers) in my mind probably since the age of 5. My fascination with Nutrition Facts on boxes has been life-long and I have always wondered _how_ they get that data, and _how_ they _prove that it is exactly accurate to what I am eating_ . And now this video shows me that it's because of a thing called an *SRM* or, *Standard Reference Material* ! Genius.
@paulsimons769
Жыл бұрын
Because this information didn't exist prior to the making of this video; during that period since you were 5, you could have at anytime. Looked it up yourself
@raisschultz420
Жыл бұрын
@@paulsimons769 most dumbasses these days need to be told exactly how to think and what to think about and what to do when they want to do something. common sense and independence no longer exist
@spimbles
7 ай бұрын
5 year old me instantly connected those dots and knew in a child-ized way that the scientists just knew best because they did their homework. none of this information is surprising in any way shape or form