The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is discussing the cancellation of a plan for the entire team responsible for releasing and maintaining critical atomic measurement data in the coming weeks, because Trump administration Keep working hard Reduce federal labor force in the United StatesAccording to an email sent to dozens of outside scientists on March 18. The basis of data is advanced scientific research around the world Semiconductor manufacturing and Nuclear Fusion.
“We have been told recently that the entire Atomic Spectroscopy team will be fired within weeks unless the federal government’s reorganization plan changes significantly, especially since our work does not consider that there is no legally essential task for the NIST’s mission,” Yuri Ralchenko, the group’s leader, wrote in an email, which was seen through entertainment.
Ralchenko pointed out that atomic spectroscopy has been used to discover many new exoplanets and develop powerful new diagnostic technologies as well as other applications. “Unfortunately, the story of NIST’s atomic spectrum is coming to an end,” he wrote.
Ralchenko responded to Wired’s request for comment, saying he would not allow talking about budget and management issues and forwarded the issues to NIST’s public affairs department. NIST and its parent company, the Ministry of Commerce, did not respond to a request for comment.
Atomic spectral clusters study how atoms absorb or emit light, allowing researchers to identify elements present in a given sample. It then collects and updates these calculations Atomic Spectral Databasean industry-leading catalog of spectral information and measurements that play a crucial role in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and medicine. In a blog post published last week Emphasize importance In the database, NIST says it receives an average of 70,000 search requests per month.
“It’s really hard to overestimate” the importance of the data,” said Evgeny Stambulchik, a senior staff research scientist at the Weizmann Academy of Sciences in Israel. petition Collect signatures from other researchers and the public, who oppose cutting the atomic spectrum team. The petition currently has more than 1,700 signatures.
Stambulchik Those observed By the powerful James Webber telescope. He added that it is also the only tool to investigate “the substance at temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees,” such as inside a nuclear fusion reactor.
Another plasma physicist at the U.S. agency demanded that they remain anonymous because they have no right to talk to the media, and he said they use this data every day to build reliable models to design future fusion reactors. “Losing a trusted data source will hinder private convergence companies,” they explained.
American scientists say the data provided by the NIST atomic spectrum cluster is useful to researchers and engineers in multiple fields. “The team provides the foundation of careful and well-planned data such as GPS and lithography,” they said. “It is this rigorous science and engineering that keeps our bridges and our powers alive. It’s not ‘moving quickly and destroying things.'”
