The metric system is great, but sometimes it simply doesn't do justice to what you're trying to describe. These highly-specialized units of measurement might be of use! Sagan. Inspired by and in ...

The metric system is on track for a mass makeover. In an effort to provide accurate measurements at all scales, scientists are preparing to redefine four basic units by the end of 2018. The shift will ...

Metrology is defined as the science of measurement. Metrology dates back to the ancient world, but modern metrology is derived from the politics French revolution, where the standardisation of units ...

In the age of big data, it is time to ensure that units are routinely documented for easy, unambiguous exchange of information. Robert Hanisch is the director of the Office of Data and Informatics at ...

For millennia, humans have turned to the sky to tell time. Our planet rotates once on its axis, and we’ve lived another day. We divide that day into smaller fractions: the hour, minute, and second.

Scientists are preparing to redefine the fundamental unit of time. It won’t get any longer or shorter, but it will be more precise — and a whole lot more powerful. By Alanna Mitchell Modern ...

There’s been some confusion over the size of today’s explosion in China’s Tianjin province, with some people mistakenly thinking it was the largest non-nuclear explosion of all time. It was not — that ...

ZEP-toe-new-ton n. A unit of force equal to one billionth of a trillionth of a newton. An itty-bitty object can be used to suss out teeny-weeny forces. Scientists used an atom of the element ytterbium ...