Latest science stories

• A team led by NPL, featuring the London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, Freie Universität Berlin and IBM, have revealed for the first time a mechanism by which peptides rip bacterial membranes apart.
• A team including NPL scientists has developed a portable way to produce ultracold atoms for quantum technology and quantum information processing.
• Alan Turnbull, Senior NPL Fellow in Electrochemistry and Corrosion, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
• The 2012 NPL Annual Review of science and engineering achievements and the economic and societal benefits of NPL's work has been published.
• The University of Edinburgh and NPL invent a new way to zip and unzip DNA strands using electrochemistry.
• A Technology Innovation Fund project brought together biotechnologists at NPL and ReactivLab to investigate a batch quality issue.
• NPL and Cryogenic Ltd have designed and developed the most accurate instrument for comparative measurements of electric current.
• NPL develops a tool to improve ultrasound treatments of muscle and ligament injuries.

Ever since opening in 1900, NPL has strived to deliver the highest social and economic impact through world-class measurement science, innovative applied research and knowledge services.

NPL maintains a wide portfolio of internationally visible research programmes that advance measurement science, underpin the SI system of measurement units and support various cross-disciplinary technologies.

Outstanding people

Over 500 scientists are employed across almost every discipline, from physicists to biochemists, and mathematicians to materials scientists. These passionate people deliver solutions to a wide range of problems for government, industry and other organisations, often well beyond the scope of measurement science.

World-class facilities

Research activities are housed in a state-of-the-art building providing 36,000 m² of custom-designed laboratories and support facilities. This enables the highest precision measurements to be realised, many of which exploit effects at the atomic level.

Collaboration

Collaboration is fundamental to much of NPL's research and scientists work with UK and international universities, as well as with other National Measurement Institutes and companies, from small start-ups to large multi-national corporations.

For more information on our work with commercial organisations, please visit the Commercial Services pages.

Science quality at NPL is monitored internally by our Chief Scientist, key scientists, and Knowledge Leaders, and externally via regular visits from the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering