Forged in 1879 and sanctioned by the General Conference on Weights and Measures at its first meeting, Le Grand K, the international prototype of the kilogram, has been kept under lock and key in a vault outside Paris.
BIPM
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A small cylinder called Le Grand K has defined the kilogram for more than a hundred years. But if a scratch ever rendered it lighter, the definition of the kilo literally shifted. Time for a change.
Stan Lee, American comic book writer, editor, publisher and former President of Marvel Comics, attends the premiere of Doctor Strange in 2016. Lee died Monday at the age of 95.
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Uighur security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, a city in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, in 2017. Xinjiang authorities have detained members of the Uighur ethnic minority, who are largely Muslim, and held them in camps the authorities call "education and training centers."
Ng Han Guan/AP
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Matthew Whitaker is pictured at an event in Washington in August. President Trump this month appointed Whitaker as acting attorney general.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Forged in 1879 and sanctioned by the General Conference on Weights and Measures at its first meeting, Le Grand K, the international prototype of the kilogram, has been kept under lock and key in a vault outside Paris.
BIPM
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Kim Schrier is one of a number of Democratic House candidates who backed stronger gun regulations and flipped Republican-controlled seats in last week's midterm elections.
Elaine Thompson/AP
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