(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Nanoscience, which studies small objects, has a big problem. According to a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the field confronts a pervasive error of data analysis that can give misleading insights into how these tiny objects’ properties depend on their size. The team also offers a practical solution—a mathematical correction that can reveal how these materials truly behave.

Reported in ACS Nano, the team’s discovery has many implications, from testing material properties to developing products that use nanotechnology, which takes advantage of the behavior of materials at very small sizes. Nanoscale objects range from a few to a few hundred nanometers across—the size range of many viruses. At the nanoscale, a material often shows properties that differ from what the same material would exhibit in larger bulk form. For example, nanoscale chunks of gold metal can appear to be ruby red in color.

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