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Cryo-EM Reveals Crucial Electrical Switch in Brain

Scientists using cryo-EM have revealed the structure of a critical receptor (AMPA) in the brain associated with learning, memory, behavior and mood. The research was also the first to reveal the structure of AMPA receptors in a natural state, a discovery that could lead to new insight about the mechanism...

Researchers Discover Water that Never Freezes

Can water reach -263°C without turning into ice? The answer is yes, according to a group of physicists and chemists from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich who identified an unusual way to not only prevent water from forming ice crystals while at extreme sub-zero temperatures but to also...

Working Together as a “virtual telescope,” Observatories Around the World Produce First Direct Images of a Black Hole

MIT News reported on April 10 that an international team of over 200 astronomers had captured the first direct images of a black hole. They accomplished this remarkable feat by coordinating the power of nine major radio observatories on four continents, to work together as a virtual, Earth-sized telescope. In...

Turning Patient Cells into Cancer Fighters

Cancer therapy could soon include a personalized cancer treatment based on engineered immune cells derived from a patient's individual cells. The approach involves attaching proteins to these cells, receptors that target antigens present in cancer cells to then enable a patient’s immune system to seek out and destroy tumors.

Cold Atoms Act as Distant Messengers

Particles can interact directly by repelling or attracting each other, but how do particles interact when far apart? Scientists at the University of Chicago have discovered that atoms can actually exchange information using intermediary particles. Such research represents the first time this particular phenomenon has been observed in a cold...

Cryo-EM Helps Decipher 3D Structure for Cancer Treatment

A research team from Columbia University and Nimbus Therapeutics has successfully determined the 3D structure of human ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY), a metabolic enzyme that plays a key role in cancer cell proliferation and other cellular processes.

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

Magnetic Levitation

From http://www.superconductors.org. Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to “float” on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have...

Superconductivity

From Superpower website. History of Superconductivity Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kammerlingh Onnes when he was able to liquefy helium by cooling it to 4 Kelvin, or -452°F. This enabled him to cool other materials close to absolute zero and investigate their electrical properties. He...

Medical Applications of Cryogenics

Neutron Therapy Cryogenics is at the heart of nuclear accelerators. Accelerators such as Fermilab’s Tevatron make neutron therapy for cancer possible. From Fermilab Today 4/20/09: Fermilab currently offers neutron therapy. But staff at Fermilab designed and built the proton accelerator used by the nation’s first hospital-based treatment center to use...

Nuclear Physics

Al Zeller National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) at Michigan State University zeller@nscl.msu.edu Cryogenics has a long history in nuclear physics. The technology has its origins in the use of cold traps for maintaining a vacuum, which is required to prevent beam loss and for generating high voltages used in acceleration....

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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