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Nominations Open Now for Several IEEE Awards

IEEE Council on Superconductivity is currently accepting nominations for many awards, including its Wong Award, Swerdlow Award, Rosner Award and the IEEE Award for Continuing and Significant Contributions in the Field of Applied Superconductivity.

Dark Energy Survey Completes Six-year Mission

The Dark Energy Survey's scientific effort to map a portion of the sky in unprecedented detail has come to an end, but the work to learn more about the expansion of the universe has just begun.

DESY Introduces Astroparticle Physics Research Division

DESY is expanding exploration of the universe with a new research division for astroparticle physics. Such physics has developed rapidly in recent years, according to DESY, and the expansion means the agency will soon have four research divisions, including accelerators, photon science, particle physics and astroparticle physics.

SHI Cryogenics Releases Highest Capacity 4K Cryocooler

The SHI Cryogenics Group (CSA CSM) introduced a new Gifford-McMahon Cryocooler model in January, its highest-capacity 4K cryocooler to date. The advanced cryocooler extends SHI’s existing model range, units already recognized as reliable and versatile systems that feature high cooling capacities, compact designs and orientation-free operation.

Misaligned Stacks of Graphene are Stirring up Physics

An MIT team has turned graphene into a superconducting material that allows electricity to flow without resistance. The scientists achieved this feat by placing one sheet of graphene over another, rotating the other sheet to a special orientation and cooling the ensemble to a fraction of a degree above absolute...

Probing the Universe: SQUID Amplifiers for Next-Generation Large Focal Plane Array

Physicists around the world are using experiments to answer fundamental questions, including theoretical models and experimental evidence. The Simons Array is an example of one such experiment, used to observe Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, an afterglow from the universe created when it was just 380,000 years old.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Cold Compressors

A common way to provide cooling below the normal boiling point of helium (4.2K) is to reduce the pressure above the bath of liquid helium, thus also reducing the bath’s equilibrium saturation temperature. For example, to produce a 1.8K bath of liquid helium, the saturation pressure has to be reduced...

Kapitza Conductance

Kapitza conductance refers to the heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid that covers that surface. Fundamentally, it describes the inherent difficulty in transferring energy from a solid to the fluid covering the solid surface. This phenomenon was first observed by P. L. Kapitza in 1941 while studying...

Thermosyphons

A thermosyphon (or thermosiphon) is a device that transfers heat via natural convection in a fluid. The natural convection is driven by gravity with the colder, denser fluid flowing downhill and the warmer, less dense fluid flowing back up. Thus, thermosyphons connect an object to be cooled with a reservoir...

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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