Unclear units stymie science

In 1999, when NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter missed its intended orbit and burned up in the Martian atmosphere, the media had a heyday over the reason: one team had used metric units in its thrust calculations, another, imperial. Most software packages, data-management tools and programming languages lack built-in support for associating units with numeric data (with the exception of the language F#). A pilot Units of Measurement Interoperability Service is being developed by another DRUM member that intends to cover more representation systems (see go.nature.com/3vevfdo). Because none has been fully adopted, there is no universal system to bridge them. Since being launched, DRUM and Digital SI have worked to raise awareness and to support efforts to improve interoperability together with national and international organizations, including the CIPM, the International Science Council, the Research Data Alliance and the GO FAIR Initiative.