As a non-profit, public-private partnership, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) bridges the gap between early stage technology and commercialization. Funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) and founded in 2016, AFFOA uses its expertise in fibers and fabrics, as well as membership ecosystems, to advance the domestic development of...

As another productive year comes to a close, it’s always nice to take a moment to look back on everything our hard-working staff members have accomplished and celebrate the wins. From semiconductors to quantum computing (and post-quantum encryption) to artificial intelligence, this year has seen NIST accomplish some major milestones.

CHIPS Act

In...

Fossil energy stakeholders have a new reason to worry. During the last weeks of the Trump administration, the US Department of Defense announced that it had lent some of its financial muscle to BioMADE, a sprawling program aimed at accelerating the growth of a domestic bioeconomy. One of the first shoes to drop is a a dandelion-based rubber...

Will a robot ever make your blue jeans?

There is a quiet effort underway to find out — involving clothing and technology companies, including Germany’s Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE) and Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N).

"Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn’t been automated," said Eugen Solowjow, who heads a project at a Siemens lab in San...