Painter Bob Ross taught us that “happy accidents” can make beautiful art. Happy accidents also happen in science when experiments take research in unexpected directions. One dramatic example is Sir Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin.

Not all unexpected scientific developments are that momentous, but our NIST researchers have found similarly unexpected…

A problem shows up, and the fix usually arrives five minutes later.

“We need more training.”

“We need a better system.”

“We need another person.”

“We need a new checklist.”

Sometimes one of those answers is exactly right. Too often it’s not. The organization has named a solution before even agreeing on what failed.

Anyone who works around…

People pitch ideas all the time. Most of those pitches never get heard. Why? Because they don’t consider the audience.

I get ideas pitched to me all the time. My inbox is flooded by emails from PR professionals asking me to carry guest blog posts, do book reviews, share their infographics, and interview the people they represent. The vast majority of all those pitches have one…