Cold Facts Digital – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

Lydall names new chief financial officer

Scott Deakin will join Lydall, Inc. (CSA CSM) as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective September 8, 2015. He was formerly executive vice president and chief financial officer at Ensign-Bickford Industries, Inc.

MT24 will explore cutting-edge magnet technologies

MT24, the 24th International Conference on Magnet Technology, will take place at the Coex Center, Seoul, Korea, October 18-23. The conference, organized by The Korean Institute of Superconductivity and Cryogenics, will cover magnet technology ranging from large scale magnets to magnets for home appliances.

MIT team creates a superfluid in a record-high magnetic field

MIT physicists have created a superfluid gas, the so-called Bose-Einstein condensate, for the first time in an extremely high magnetic field. The magnetic field is synthetic, generated using laser beams, and is 100 times stronger than that of the world’s strongest magnets. Within this magnetic field, the researchers could keep...

Prototype of Mu2e solenoid passes tests with flying colors

Last month, a group in the Fermilab Technical Division aced three tests—for alignment, current and temperature—of a prototype transport solenoid module built for the Mu2e experiment by magnet experts at Fermilab's Technical Division and INFN-Genoa in Italy. The triple milestone means that Fermilab can now order the full set for...

Fermilab NOvA experiment sees neutrinos change over 500 miles

Scientists on the NOvA experiment recently saw their first evidence of oscillating neutrinos, confirming that the extraordinary detector built for the project not only functions as planned but is also making great progress toward its goal of a major leap in our understanding of these ghostly particles.

LCLS measures ultrafast structural changes in ring-shaped gas molecules

For the first time, scientists have tracked ultrafast structural changes, captured in quadrillionths-of-a-second steps, as ring-shaped gas molecules burst open and unraveled. Ring-shaped molecules are abundant in biochemistry and also form the basis for many drug compounds. The pioneering study, conducted at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), points 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

Magnets

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...

Energy Storage

From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...

Astronomy

ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...

Cryocoolers

What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...

Latest in Ask the Experts