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APS designates Sanford Lab, Morgan State University as historic physics sites

On September 14, the American Physical Society (APS) announced it has designated Sanford Lab Underground Research Facility (SURF) and Morgan State University as two Historic Sites in physics. SURF, located in Lead SD, is being recognized for its role in neutrino research led by Ray Davis while Morgan State University...

Lab Researcher and Physics Undergrad Creates Poster Project Honoring Black Physicists

Inspired by the nation’s grappling with issues of race and racial discrimination, UC Berkeley physics major and Berkeley Lab student assistant Ana Lyons turned to art as a way to contribute to the conversation. Aware of the scientific community’s own self-reflection for its history of racial inequity and discrimination, Lyons...

LIGO, Virgo Detect Most Massive Gravitational-Wave Source Yet

On September 2, researchers at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) in California and Virgo Interferometer have detected a signal from what may be the most massive black hole merger yet observed in gravitational waves. The product of the merger is the first clear detection of an “intermediate-mass” black hole, with...

Pandemic’s Global Slowdown Relieves Helium Industry Pressure

Last September, Cold Facts examined the then-ongoing third global helium shortage (Cold Facts, Vol. 35, Number 4) as it forced the world to reconsider the myriad applications and processes utilizing helium. Now, as the pandemic slows the global economy, helium users and experts are reconsidering what the future of helium...

CERN Identifies Rare Higgs Boson Decay into Two Muons

On August 2, at the 40th International Conference on High Energy Physics in Prague, CERN’s ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiments jointly announced new results which show that the Higgs boson decays into two muons—“heavier” second-generation copies of electrons. A first-of-its-kind observation, the process of...

Supercooled Ion Trap Measures Vibrational Frequency in Hydrogen

An international research collaboration headed by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) scientist Jeroen Koelemeij developed a new method to measure vibrational frequencies in the molecular hydrogen ion (HD+) at 400 times higher precision than before. The technique enables an improved understanding of the fundamental laws of physics and particles such as...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

Latest in Cryo Central

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

Primary Standards

Elie K. Track Hypres, Inc. elie@hypres.com http://www.hypres.com/ Primary standards involve the exact definition and realization of units of measurement for various quantities, time, length, mass, voltage, resistance, current, etc. International agreements based on the latest scientific knowledge define those units, and their realizations vary depending on the unit itself. For...

Shrink Fitting

Robin A. Rhodes Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Shrink fitting, (or “compression fitting” as it is sometimes called), is a method used to insert a pin or bushing into a housing or other assembly requiring an extremely tight tolerance fit. It can be used as an alternative to...

Telecommunications

From the Winter 2004 issue of Cold Facts magazine The recent M-Calc IV — 4th Industry Assessment workshop discussing military and commercial applications for low-cost cryocoolers, held in November in San Diego, highlighted progress being made in cryogenics as applied in telecommunications. The reliability and long lifetime of projects now...

Latest in Ask the Experts

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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