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Allen Dufort: Coding a cutting-edge space telescope

In July, as the world marveled at the first images of the Cosmic Cliffs and previously invisible areas of star birth revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope, Allen Dufort felt excited that he’d soon make his own contributions to space exploration. As a software engineer intern, Dufort is supporting Brown...

Cryogenic Operation of LEDs Results in Improved Quantum Efficiency

Terrestrial gravitational wave detectors have been used to identify various gravitational wave sources. For example, researchers have detected potential black hole neutron star mergers, binary neutron star inspirals, and binary black hole mergers via the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The aLIGO detectors’ most sensitive band is limited by thermal...

3D Systems Announces Copper-nickel Alloy for PBF-LB

3D Systems has announced CuNi30 – a corrosion-resistant, copper-nickel alloy for use with its DMP Flex 350, metal additive manufacturing machine. The material is a result from the company’s collaboration with HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division to develop materials and process parameters for the Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) process. “We’re...

Nikkiso to Bring Hydrogen Fueling Stations to California, South Korea, and Germany

Nikkiso Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group was awarded multiple contracts for over a dozen locations. Nikkiso Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (CE&IG), a part of the Japanese company Nikkiso Co., Ltd group of companies, has announced that it was awarded several contracts for providing over a dozen hydrogen fueling...

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab Experiments with Exotic State of Matter

Since the days of NASA’s Apollo program, astronauts have documented (and contended with) how liquids like water behave differently in microgravity than they do on Earth – coalescing into floating spheres instead of bottom-heavy droplets. Now, researchers have demonstrated this effect with a much more exotic material: gas cooled to...

Temperatures Colder Than Space, Achieved on Earth Through X-ray Laser

A half-mile-long tunnel under Menlo Park, Calif., has become colder than most of the universe because of a particle accelerator that slams electrons together here on Earth. Using the X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – part of an upgrade project to the Linac Coherent...

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

Need help comparing chest freezers and upright freezers

Currently we use in our Biobank an upright -80 freezer to store all our samples. We are planning to buy a fully automated bio-repository storage that will do the picking of samples under restricted conditions. But in the meantime I foresee that we have to pick the samples manually. The...

Need recommendations for cryogenic vials

I am looking into standardizing our range of bio storage tubes (cryogenic vials). These will be for both blood and tissue samples and their derivatives. Any recommendations, comments on Micronics, Nalgene, Nunc and or others that are suitable for long term -80 C and -196 C storage, DNA/RNA suitable, would...

We need a custom machine for flash freezing of water

We are an ice making company and have started a new project, which is related to flash freezing of water. It is based on cryogenics technology and we need a custom made machine. I would kindly ask you to pass me a few companies who would be interested in such...

Looking for a pump suitable for cold liquids

I would like to construct a small cooling circuit (appr. 50 x 50 cm) pumping liquid at a temperature down to -120°C from a cold reservoir to the specimen to be cooled. The tubes and connections are not a problem, but does somebody know a pump (suction/compression for circulation) suitable...

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