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LUX-ZEPLIN Cryostat Installed at Sanford Underground Research Facility

On October 21, crews at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota strapped the cryostat containing the central component of LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), the largest direct-detection dark matter experiment in the US, below an elevator and slowly lowered it 4,850 feet down a shaft formerly used in gold-mining operations—final...

The Coolest LEGO in the Universe

For the first time, LEGO has been cooled to the lowest temperature possible in an experiment which reveals a new use for the popular toy. A team of ultra low temperature physicists at Lancaster University decided to place a LEGO figure and four LEGO blocks inside their record-breaking dilution refrigerator....

20th Year of Particle Smashups Underway at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

The 20th year of particle collisions is underway at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a US Department of Energy Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The particle smashups will continue over a range of collision energies through the first half of 2020,...

Coldest Chemical Reaction Ever Transforms Future Observations

A team led by Kang-Kuen Ni, associate professor of chemistry, chemical biology and physics at Harvard, achieved the coldest chemical reaction in the known universe in late November. Forcing two ultracold molecules to meet and react, they broke and formed the coldest bonds in the history of molecular couplings. The...

Will Cryogenically Freezing Yourself and Coming Back to Life Ever Be Reality?

When people die, many things can be done with their bodies––embalming, cremation, donation to science and so on—but some people will choose to have their dead bodies, or parts thereof, frozen with the expectation that technology will advance enough to bring them back to life. Reactions, a video series from...

NASA Breaks SLS Liquid Hydrogen Tank to Test Extreme Limits

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville AL deliberately pushed the world's largest rocket fuel tank beyond its design limits to really understand its breaking point. The test version of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's liquid hydrogen tank withstood more than 260% of expected flight loads over...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Helium-3

Helium-3 (3He) is one of the two stable isotopes of helium. The other is the much more common Helium-4 (4He). Neither of these isotopes should be confused with He II, which is the second liquid phase of 4He. He II was discussed in this column in the Spring 2010 edition...

Cryopumping

Cryopumping refers to the use of cryogenic temperatures to produce vacuum in enclosed spaces. More broadly, it can also refer to the removal of gases via cryogenic temperatures from a flow stream or enclosure without necessarily resulting in vacuum pressures. This is an important application of cryogenics and is used...

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations (TAO) are a common event in cryogenic systems that can have significant adverse effects on the performance of the system. TAOs are sustained pressure oscillations that can occur in tubes containing gas, closed at one end (the warm end) that have a very large temperature gradient along...

Latest in Cryo Central

Air Separation and Liquefaction

by Nils Tellier, PE, President, EPSIM Corporation (CSA CSM) nils@epsim.us All illustrations courtesy EPSIM Corporation Background History of Air Separation and Liquefaction This section builds on a rich history of methods to develop deep refrigeration and cryogenic liquefaction during the 19th Century. You are encouraged to read Cryo Central’s History...

Bose-Einstein Condensate

A Bose-Einstein condensate, first proposed in 1925 by Albert Einstein based on work done by Satyendra Nath Bose (the same Bose from whom the term boson is derived), is a super-cold state of matter in which almost all of the individual atoms have “condensed” down to the lowest possible quantum...

Cold Technology for Pest Control

While it does not reach temperatures cold enough to be called cryogenic, carbon dioxide snow is at the heart of a new way of dealing with unwanted pests. It utilizes a quick freezing process that takes advantage of the properties of carbon dioxide snow and has a number of benefits...

Cryogenic Finishing

The following 3 articles discuss the uses and procedures of various type of cryogenic finishing. 1) By Robin A. Rhodes, Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Cryogenic Deflashing is employed to remove undesired residual mold flash that remains on molded parts after they are removed or ejected from the...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Information on how the emissivity of the panel changes with air fouling?

I work at a facility with a large thermal vacuum chamber. We are using both nitrogen and helium shrouds.

In search of a calculation for designing a cryostat

I am a final year physics student at the University of Birmingham, and as part of a group I am currently designing a cryostat. One of the calculations I need to make (very soon!) is how much heat will be conducted down the walls. All information I have found so...

Safety of ethylene glycol and pressurized oxygen

We are reviewing the product design of liquid filled differential level gauges and want to insure that they meet the industry requirements. The former license owner had authorized that a fill fluid of ethylene glycol (68%) and distilled water (32%) could be used for oxygen service up to 500 psi....

Heat flux in case of vacuum loss on cryogenic surfaces?

Is there anyone who has information about the heat flux in case of vacuum loss on cryogenic surfaces?

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