(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) introduces the VSANS Very Small Angle Neutron Scattering (VSANS) instrument that will help scientists at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) explore objects at the size scale important for nanotechnology.

It looks more like a long water-main pipe than a microscope, and its name is almost as lengthy as its 45-meter footprint, but the custom-built VSANS instrument from NIST will give scientists the ability to glimpse moment-by-moment changes in materials on the nanometer scale.

Culminating from several years of in-house engineering, VSANS fills a gap in vision that U.S. researchers have craved for at least a decade: the ability to spot nanometer-scale changes in materials that could improve the medicines in your cabinet, the chips in your computer, and even the soap in your shower.

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