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Scientists Use Light to Accelerate Supercurrents, Access ‘Forbidden’ Light, Quantum Properties

Scientists at Iowa State University are using light waves to accelerate supercurrents and access the unique properties of the quantum world, including "forbidden" light emissions that one day could be applied to high speed quantum computers, communications and other technologies. The scientists have seen unexpected things in supercurrents—electricity that moves...

They Are There and They Are Gone: ICARUS Chases a Fourth Neutrino

On February 21, scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) (CSA CSM) began cooling down ICARUS—the largest particle detector in the lab’s Short-Baseline Neutrino Program—and filling it with 760 tons of liquid argon. This moves ICARUS closer to operation and the search for a fourth type of neutrino. “The Short-Baseline...

Women in Cryogenics and Superconductivity 2020

CSA celebrates women in cryogenics and superconductivity. In this feature, seven women in positions across the industry discuss current projects, how they entered the field and their thoughts on attracting more women to the profession.

Honeywell Announces Development of Record-Setting Quantum Computer

Honeywell Quantum Solutions, a division of Honeywell International, Inc., has announced the development of an unprecedented quantum computing system. Slated for a mid-2020 release, the company says its quantum system has doubled the quantum volume of the next fastest system at QV (Quantum volume) 64. The system is the first...

Best Practices for Handling and Monitoring LN2 Containers Containing Reproductive Materials

Last year, after the 2018 loss of cryogenically stored human embryos at two plants in California and Ohio in 2018, experts were forced to reconsider the standards by which these facilities maintained their cryogenic systems. Eggschain, an Austin TX-based startup using blockchain technology to provide fertility clinic users and facilities...

MR Solutions Makes Imaging More Accessible outside Clinical Health Applications

MR Solutions, a Guildford, UK-based manufacturer, produces superconducting, cryogen-free, “benchtop” magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. The company, founded by Dr. David Taylor in 1999, specializes in machines built for use outside traditional healthcare applications and has developed a range of preclinical imaging systems with innumerable applications. In the past, this...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Refrigerators and Liquefiers

Two of the most common terms used in cryogenics are “refrigerator” and “liquefier.” These terms describe similar and, as will be seen, in some cases identical components. A refrigerator provides cooling (that is, absorbs heat) at cryogenic temperatures. Refrigerators typically put a working fluid (such as helium) through one of...

Air Separation

Air separation is one of the largest, as well as earliest, industrial applications of cryogenics. In this process, cryogenic temperatures are used to separate air into its constituent gases: nitrogen (78.08%), oxygen (20.95%), argon (0.93%) and carbon dioxide (0.3%). Trace gases such as krypton, neon, xenon and helium total far...

Coefficient of Performance and Figure of Merit

The coefficient of performance (COP) is used to describe the effectiveness of refrigerators, including those operating at cryogenic temperatures. The COP is defined as the amount of heat removed at the cryogenic operating temperature of the refrigerator divided by the amount of work that must be applied to remove the...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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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