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

High-tech storage holds the key to preserving plant life

About half the world's plant species are estimated to be under threat of extinction, and Australia is home to 14 percent of them. It is now hoped a cryogenic storage unit can protect Australia's native plants forever.

Bestobell supplies valves for first US LNG flag vessel

The first US flag vessel to be operated on liquefied natural gas uses valves supplied by Bestobell Valves (CSA CSM). Globe and check valves were supplied as part of the LNGPac fuel system through the company’s preferred supplier agreement with Wärtsilä Gas Power Systems (GPS).

Scientists create first computer-designed superconductor

A Binghamton University scientist and his international colleagues report on the successful synthesis of the first superconductor designed entirely on the computer. Their findings were published in Physical Review Letters.

Higgs, Englert Win Nobel for Particle Mass Discoveries

On October 8 François Englert of Belgium and Peter Higgs of Britain were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics for their theoretical discoveries on how subatomic particles acquire mass.

VIDEO: A guided tour around the CLIC test facility

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a study for a future accelerator that will reach unprecedented energies for electrons and their antimatter twins, positrons.

UCSB researchers make headway in quantum information transfer

Fiber optics has made communication faster than ever, but the next step involves a quantum leap—literally. In order to improve the security of the transfer of information, scientists are working on how to translate electrical quantum states to optical quantum states in a way that would enable ultrafast, quantum-encrypted communications.

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

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

Low temperature applications of titanium and alloys

For a technical presentation I would like to have some recommendations for low temperature applications of titanium and titanium alloys. Do you think you can help me?

Designing a liquid oxygen bath

I’m designing a Liquid Oxygen Bath to place composite coupons in the bath and soak 96 samples for intervals of 8 hours, 24 hours, 7 days, 21 days, 42 days, 62 days and 90 days.

School science projects involving cryogenics and metallurgy?

Can you recommend any school science projects that would involve cryogenics and metallurgy?

Metallic Salts Normally Used to Produce Ultra-Low Temperatures?

Regarding the method known as the Adiabatic Demagnetization of Paramagnetic Salts: What metallic salts are normally used to produce the ultra-low temperatures used for near-absolute-zero cryogenic research? Which salts are the most efficient? Which make the best cooling agents? And which are used most commonly by physicists? I am looking...

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