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NIF Journeys to Ignition

December 5, 2022, marked a historic breakthrough in the field of fusion research as scientists achieved ignition, a momentous achievement that has been a scientific grand challenge spanning over 50 years. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) within the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved an igniting fusion reaction where the...

Partnership Revolutionizes Healthcare with the MAGNETOM Terra 7 Tesla MRI Scanner

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Carle Health, a vertically integrated healthcare system with hospitals, physician practices and a medical school, have formed a unique partnership to co-own and operate a Siemens Healthineers MAGNETOM Terra 7 Tesla MRI scanner. This collaboration has significant implications for both research and clinical...

Adult Corals Have Been Safely Frozen and Revived for the First Time

Like something out of science fiction, small colonies of mature corals have been safely frozen and revived for the first time, though more work will be needed to ensure their long-term survival, researchers report reported in Nature Communications. Freezing chunks of living corals for safekeeping — or cryopreserving them —...

Cryogenic Prober Determines Quality of Qubit Devices

Germany’s first cryogenic measuring setup for the statistical quality measurement of qubit devices on 200- and 300-mm wafers has commenced operation at Fraunhofer IAF. With the newly established cryogenic on-wafer prober, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF aim to gain a deeper understanding of the...

GKN, Marshall and Parker to Cooperate on Hydrogen Flight

Aerospace industry supplier GKN Aerospace is joining forces with Marshall and Parker Aerospace to explore liquid hydrogen fuel systems for aircraft. The partners plan to develop a liquid hydrogen system suitable for both fuel cell and internal combustion engine aircraft. The planned collaboration will benefit from the UK government-funded H2GEAR...

Unveiling the Intricate Protein Complex Guiding Signaling to Cilia

Cilia, the tiny hair-like projections found on the surface of most eukaryotic cells, act as the conduits for a myriad of signaling processes that orchestrate cellular activities. However, these intricate organelles are not equipped to craft the signaling proteins themselves. Instead, they rely on an intricate network of transport mechanisms...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Regenerators

Regenerators or regenerative heat exchangers are a key component of cryocoolers such as pulse tube cryocoolers (Cold Facts, August 2014). Regenerator performance greatly affects the coefficient of performance of cryocoolers. Improvements in regenerator design and, in particular, regenerator materials have been an important factor in the improvement of the performance...

Pulse Tube Cryocoolers

The development of pulse tube cryocoolers has been a significant topic of research and development over the past 20 or so years. Pulse tube cryocoolers have a number of advantages over other types of cryocoolers and are now available commercially. In order to understand pulse tube cryocoolers, it’s best to...

Thermal Expansion

Thermal expansion refers to the change in size (length or volume) that a material undergoes as its temperature changes. In cryogenic systems this effect can be quite large and must be allowed for in the design. In isotropic materials, which include most engineering materials, the thermal expansion is the same...

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

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...

Separated layers of ice over a pipe

I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?

Using nitrogen as a cryogen

Is it possible to achieve -200˚C using nitrogen as a cryogen?

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