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NASA Readies Multiple Balloon Program Experiments

NASA's balloon program is currently preparing new missions bearing sensitive instruments, including one designed to investigate the birth of our universe and another with ballooning origins that will fly on the International Space Station.

ICARUS Arrives at Fermilab, Greeted by Familiar Face

The ICARUS detector ended its journey across the Atlantic on July 26, arriving by semi-truck at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Waiting for it there was Angela Fava, an experimental physicist who first worked with the machine in 2006, tightening bolts and connecting cables while an undergrad in Italy. In...

Construction Begins on International Megascience Neutrino Experiment

A groundbreaking ceremony on July 21 at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, marked the official start of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, future home to the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE). In the unique ceremony, a group of dignitaries, scientists and engineers from around the...

Oak Ridge National Lab Chooses D-Wave to Advance Computing Programs

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (CSA CSM) has chosen D-Wave Systems Inc., a leader in computing systems, to provide cloud systems to help advance its hybid computing applications. Under the agreement, ORNL scientists will have cloud access to a D-Wave 2000Q™ system that allows for exploration of hybrid computing architectures as...

Working Group Formed to Standardize Cryotherapy

The International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) has formed a new working group focused on whole-body cryotherapy. The group will focus on standardizing both exposure protocols and temperature measurements for all existing WBC devices and developing safety instructions for cold exposure.

Physicists Propose New Superfluid Helium-4 Wave Detector

A collaboration of US-based researchers has proposed a new type of detector that would measure sound waves caused by gravitational waves in the 0.1–1.5 kHz range. The system comprises several kilograms of superfluid helium-4 held in a cylindrical container that is coupled to microwaves in a superconductor resonator. Confinement in...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Regenerators

Regenerators or regenerative heat exchangers are a key component of cryocoolers such as pulse tube cryocoolers (Cold Facts, August 2014). Regenerator performance greatly affects the coefficient of performance of cryocoolers. Improvements in regenerator design and, in particular, regenerator materials have been an important factor in the improvement of the performance...

Pulse Tube Cryocoolers

The development of pulse tube cryocoolers has been a significant topic of research and development over the past 20 or so years. Pulse tube cryocoolers have a number of advantages over other types of cryocoolers and are now available commercially. In order to understand pulse tube cryocoolers, it’s best to...

Thermal Expansion

Thermal expansion refers to the change in size (length or volume) that a material undergoes as its temperature changes. In cryogenic systems this effect can be quite large and must be allowed for in the design. In isotropic materials, which include most engineering materials, the thermal expansion is the same...

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

Thermal shock on steel cylinder when dropped into liquid nitrogen

We are a research team at the University of South Florida, studying the “thermal shock” on a steel cylinder when it is dropped into liquid nitrogen. We want to make sure that the thermocouple does not get influenced by the surrounding LN2. Any advice?

Getter materials to absorb out gassed materials?

Here’s one for the scientists: We would like to sell vacuum insulated pipe for high temperature fluid applications. Are there any good getter materials that we can place in the vacuum space of our VJP to absorb outgassed materials at elevated temperatures?

Data on Carbon Fibres Reinforced Plastic at temperatures between 4 and 300K.

I am looking for data on Carbon Fibres Reinforced Plastic at temperatures between 4 and 300K. I would appreciate it if someone could give me some hints on where to find it.

Design of cryostats and suspension mechanisms for insulation and cryostat shielding

I’m looking for information about the design of cryostats and suspension mechanisms for insulation and cryostat shielding.

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