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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...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Dewar

A dewar is a type of cryostat named after Sir James Dewar, the researcher who first developed the concept of a vacuum insulated container with silvered walls to reflect thermal radiation. Dewar was the first to liquefy hydrogen, and he created the device to store his discovery. The thermos bottle...

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon Cryocoolers

Stirling and Gifford-McMahon (GM) cryocoolers are two of the most commonly used cryocoolers in cryogenics. Both devices have a significant industrial base and operate at a wide range of temperatures and capacities. The thermodynamic cycles for both of these cryocoolers are quite similar. The Stirling cycle consists of a compressor,...

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

A significant commercial application of cryogenics is the liquefaction, transport and storage of natural gas. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is generally 95 percent methane with a few percent ethane and much lower concentrations of propane and butane. LNG liquefies at 111.6 K. Unlike many applications of cryogenics, the motivation for...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenics in Space

Peter Kittel University of California-Berkeley pkittel@cal.berkeley.edu Space Cryogenics is the application of cryogenics to space missions. These applications fall into two broad areas, supporting space science missions and supporting the space transportation infrastructure. Science applications: The atmosphere is opaque to much of the electro-magnetic spectrum. In space, the absence of...

Cryosurgery

Review of Cryosurgery Boris Rubinsky, PhD Hebrew University School of Science and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Engineering 78b Ross Building Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904 Israel rubinsky@cs.huji.ac.il as published in Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, August 2000, Vol. 2, pp. 157-187. Abstract: Cryosurgery is a surgical technique that employs freezing...

Liquefied Natural Gas

Liquefied Natural Gas as it relates to the Field of Cryogenics John W. Bonn VJ Systems, LLC johnbonn@vjsystems-lic.com Today the world is looking for a cleaner fuel and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plays a large part in achieving this goal. LNG in a liquid form is at -162°C (-259°F) and...

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

Latest in Ask the Experts

Power usage: cryogenic systems vs. regular refrigerators

A recent project highlighted to me that closed cycle cryogenic cooling systems use far more electrical power to reduce temperatures by a few watts than regular refrigerators. I am sure it must be something to do with the extra difficulty of removing the heat from the liquid nitrogen or similar...

Redundancy strategies for mechanical -80C freezers

I was wondering what kind of redundancy strategies are people using for their mechanical -80C freezers? I am aware of the following. Please add if you are doing something different. 1) 1 Backup freezer for every 10 freezers – Empty and maintained at -80C at all times 2) Backup C02...

Safety guidelines for handling cryo vessels of nitrogen

I am looking for any safety guidelines for handling cryogenic vessels of nitrogen indoors and outdoors. I am especially interested in recommendations for area monitors to detect leaks, flow detection devices, etc.

Method to move components in a cryogenic environment

Does anyone know of a method with which to reliably move components in a cryogenic environment? We are interested in moving detectors in a cryogenically cooled (2K) vacuum chamber, which is contained within a larger cryostat/isolation vacuum with thermal shields. As the desired horizontal or vertical displacement is between 10...

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