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Tributes to Professor Joseph L. Smith, Jr.

We regret to report that Professor Joseph LeConte Smith Jr., the Samuel C. Collins Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, died on May 7 at the age of 83. Following are tributes from his friends and colleagues.

Tributes to Dr. Frederick J. Edeskuty

Dr. Frederick J. Edeskuty, 89, longtime CSA member, Cold Facts columnist and expert on cryogenic safety, passed away on Friday, May 10. The following tributes were sent to CSA by friends and colleagues of Edeskuty.

Cold Facts Tours Field Museum’s Cryo Storage Facility

Cold Facts was privileged to spend a morning with Dr. Shannon Hackett, the Richard and Jill Chaifetz Associate Curator, Head, Bird Division, Zoology Department, at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. We wanted to learn more about the museum’s cryogenic storage facility and its role in the collections and research...

Report on Third New York State Superconductor Summit

At the hub of New York’s Tech Valley region, business leaders, academia, prominent scientists, engineers and government officials gathered at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) campus in Albany on May 7 for the third New York State Superconductor Technology Summit.

Inclusion of Women in STEM Matters to Society

There is no easy way to explain why more women are not encouraged to follow STEM career paths. Whatever the reasons, and no matter how complex they prove to be, they cannot be justified.

Report on Global Helium Summit held in London on June 13

A one-day conference on helium supplies was held on June 13 at the Royal Garden Hotel, London. The conference was called the “Global Helium Summit,” and was largely a useful update—via the 11 invited papers—of the ground covered by the March 2009 Cambridge Workshop on the Future of Helium.

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Stability

Stability refers to the ability of a device employing superconductors to remain in its superconducting state after part of the superconductor transitions back to its normal conducting state due to a disturbance. While the concept can apply to many superconducting devices—transmission lines, generators, motors, etc.—it is most commonly considered in...

Cable-in-Conduit Conductors

Cable-in-Conduit Conductors (CICC) are a common form of superconducting cable used in large-scale applications. There are several varieties of CICCs, but they all consist of many small, stabilized superconducting wires contained within a conduit through which a coolant (typically supercritical He II) flows. Figure 1 shows the cross section of...

Bayonet Coupling

A bayonet coupling is a demountable joint that allows for quick and easy connection and disconnection of cryogenic components, including transfer lines, cryostats, liquefiers and refrigerators. Bayonets provide a number of advantages, chief among them the ability to connect and disconnect the bayonets while components they connect are still at...

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