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Test Chamber for NASA’s New Cosmic Mapmaker Makes Dramatic Entrance

After three years of design and construction, a monthlong boat ride across the Pacific Ocean, and a lift from a 30-ton crane, the customized test chamber for NASA’s upcoming SPHEREx mission has finally reached its destination at Caltech’s Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pasadena. Set to launch no...

New Microscope Advances Cryo-ET Research

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. unveiled the Thermo Scientific Arctis Cryo-Plasma Focused Ion Beam (Cryo-PFIB), a new connected and automated microscope designed to advance the pace of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) research. Cryo-ET makes it possible to study how proteins and other molecules operate together in a cellular context, at resolutions unsurpassed by...

Excavation of Huge Caverns for DUNE Particle Detector Underway

Around a mile below the surface in South Dakota, construction crews are hard at work excavating around 1,000 tons of rock per day. Their goal is to make room for a large underground facility that will house an international effort aimed at studying neutrinos—highly elusive subatomic particles that may hold...

Helios and Eta Space Combine Technologies to Extract and Store Liquid Oxygen on the Moon

Two space tech companies, Helios and Eta Space, announced they are joining forces to solve the problem of oxygen in space. If humanity is to have a sustainable presence beyond Earth, reusable methane-fueled rocket systems need liquid oxygen at a ratio of 1:4, so the only cost-effective solution to refueling in orbit is...

In DNA–Scientists find solution to building superconductor that could transform technology

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their collaborators have used DNA to overcome a nearly insurmountable obstacle to engineer materials that would revolutionize electronics. One possible outcome of such engineered materials could be superconductors, which have zero electrical resistance, allowing electrons to flow unimpeded. That means...

Chemical Breakthrough Could Unlock the True Potential of Powdered Hydrogen as a Fuel

Researchers at the Deakin University in Australia have found that boron nitride, a household chemical used commonly in paints, cosmetics as well as dental cement, could unlock the potential of hydrogen as a fuel, a press release said. With a looming energy crisis and the threat of climate change caused by...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Space Cryogenics

Space cryogenics is, somewhat obviously, the application of cryogenics to space exploration and science. The use of cryogenics in space optimizes the launching of vehicles, provides power and life support to spacecraft and is critical for many scientific observations.Space cryogenics has a number of challenges and has driven both pure...

Exergy

The science of thermodynamics plays a major role in cryogenics. It underlies the various refrigeration cycles, from Carnot to Brayton (Cold Facts Vol. 32 No. 2) and Joule-Thomson, is a fundamental part of the definition of terms such as coefficient of performance (Cold Facts Vol. 31 No. 1) and even...

Cryogenic Treatment

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling materials to cryogenic temperatures temporarily to improve their material properties at room temperature. This is distinct from cooling materials down to cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of phenomena such as superconductivity that only occur at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic treatment, sometimes also referred to...

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

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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