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1st Asian ICMC and CSSJ 50th Anniversary Conference

ICMC (International Cryogenic Materials Conference) and CSSJ (Cryogenics and Superconductivity Society of Japan) have announced a new joint conference to be held during November 2016 in Kanazawa, Japan. Contributed, invited and plenary papers on a wide range of topics will be presented, including superconducting materials, wire, tapes and electronics; low-temperature...

Neutrinos on a Seesaw

Mass is a fundamental property of matter, but there’s still a lot about it we don’t understand—especially when it comes to the tiny masses of neutrinos. An idea called the seesaw mechanism proposes a way to explain the masses of these curious particles. If shown to be correct, it could...

Cornell Researchers Create First Self-Assembled Superconductor

After nearly two decades’ worth of research, a multidisciplinary team at Cornell has created a self-assembled, three-dimensional gyroidal superconductor. Ulrich Wiesner, a materials science and engineering professor who led the group, says it’s the first time a superconductor, in this case niobium nitride (NbN), has self-assembled into a porous, 3-D...

Phosphine as a Superconductor?

Phosphine is one of the newest materials to be named a superconductor, a material through which electricity can flow with zero resistance. Scientists first liquefied phosphine in 2015, squeezing it under high pressure in a diamond vice to achieve superconductivity, and now a group of researchers from the University of...

LHC Art Exhibition Opens at the National Academy of Sciences

While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is technically tucked away in Geneva, visitors to a new art exhibition in Washington DC may have just been afforded the most unique view available of the facility. “Jonathan Feldschuh: Large Hadron Collider” is a collection of seven paintings inspired by the world’s largest...

Argonne Scientists Inspire the Next Generation of Computational Thinkers

The City of Chicago and the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) came together this winter for a "My Brother's Keeper" event, a one-day hands-on workshop connecting the dots between computational thinking and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers for 8th grade students attending the...

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Dilution Refrigerators

Dilution refrigerators are a common technique for reaching temperatures below 1K, particularly where continuous cooling at these temperatures is required. Helium exists in two stable isotopes: 4He and 3He. Naturally occurring 3He is extremely rare, constituting less than 1 part per million of helium gas. However, 3He can be manufactured,...

Oxygen Deficiency Hazards

Oxygen Deficiency Hazards (ODH) are a significant safety issue in cryogenic facilities. ODH occurs when inert gases such as nitrogen, helium or argon displace room air and thus lower the percentage of oxygen in the space below that required for human life. OSHA defines an area as oxygen deficient if...

Kelvin Temperature Scale

The Kelvin temperature scale is the principal temperature scale used in cryogenics and science. The kelvin is also one of the seven base units in the Système International d’Unités (SI) and is the unit of thermodynamic temperature. Thermodynamic temperature is a fundamental physical quantity (like mass, length or electrical current)...

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...

Thermal conductivity of niobium, tantalum, lead, tin

I am interested in the thermal conductivity and other properties of low temperature superconductors. Specifically I am interested in materials like Niobium, Tantalum, Lead and Tin. Would you know of a publication that dealt with thermal properties in general and also gave specific data on these materials?