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MSU Establishes Cryogenic Initiative at FRIB

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) should garner a lot of attention in 2022 when it first delivers the intense beams that scientists will use to study everything from nuclear astrophysics to fundamental interactions and applications for society including in medicine, homeland security and industry. But the facility is...

Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source Unravels Mummy, Leaves Linens Untouched

Northwestern University scientists and students are working to unravel the mysteries of a small female mummy, including how her body was prepared 1,900 years ago in Egypt, what items she may have been buried with, the quality of her bones and the composition of a foreign material present in her...

Niowave’s Electron Linacs Target New Projects

From the quaint neighborhood streets that run alongside its perimeter, Niowave, Inc. appears as unassuming as the converted local elementary school from which it operates. But inside, where water fountains and toilets still perch low to the ground and footsteps echo off hallway lockers, its employees have assumed the once...

Researchers Observe Four-dimensional Physics in Two Dimensions

Physicists from two research groups have announced techniques that allow materials in four-dimensional space to be studied in two-dimensional systems. Both experiments dealt with the quantum Hall effect, a phenomenon that has been at the root of three Nobel Prizes in physics.

Qatargas Begins Operations, Finalizing Integration of Qatar Petroleum and RasGas

Qatar Petroleum announced the official start of operations of Qatargas following the completion of its integration with RasGas, a process that began in December 2016. The announcement was made by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, president & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, during a press conference held at QP headquarters.

NASA Releases Logo For Upcoming 60th Anniversary

NASA will mark the 60th anniversary of its establishment as a US government agency on October 1, 2018. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed NASA’s founding legislation, the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act, on July 29, 1958, though NASA celebrates its birthday on October 1, the day the agency opened...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

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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