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The Most Powerful MRI Scanner in the World Delivers Its First Images

In September, the 11.7 Tesla MRI of the Iseult project, the most powerful in the world for human imaging, has just unveiled its first images. They validate the entire process that has enabled, thanks to multiple technological breakthroughs, the transformation of an “outstanding” magnet, delivered in 2017 to the French...

Book Review: The Safe Use of Cryogenic Technologies by Robert Done

It is becoming common for large-scale scientific projects to include cryogenic systems provided by other countries. Examples of this include CERN, the European Spallation Source, ITER and the PIP II project at Fermilab (CSA CSM). While these contributions are quite valuable, one of the big challenges in such projects is...

Cool Fuel: Hydrogen, Lenses and Lasers, Oh My!

The bar for getting the suffix of PhD after your name is high – you have to fundamentally change the philosophy in a field. As a faculty member responsible for training some of these individuals, I’m sometimes faced with the conundrum that advancing the philosophy implies that I have to...

Groundbreaking Alternative to Invasive Breast Cancer Surgery Now Available in Monroe NJ

Patients in Central New Jersey with early-stage breast cancer can now access a highly effective treatment that does not require traditional invasive surgery. Performed at Princeton Radiology's Minimally Invasive Care Center in Monroe Township by interventional radiologist Kenneth R. Tomkovich, MD, the procedure, called cryoablation, uses a small needle and...

INEOS Announces over €2 Billion Investment in Green Hydrogen Production

INEOS has announced that it is to invest more than €2 billion into electrolysis projects to make zero carbon, green hydrogen across Europe. Its first plants will be built in Norway, Germany, Belgium with investment also planned in the UK and France. The announcement was made on October 18. INEOS,...

Heating Up Quantum Science Education with Laser Cooling

A series of interactive workshops developed by Columbia University physicist Sebastian Will and STEMteachersNYC will give educators tips and tools to cover quantum science in their classrooms. If you imagine a laser, you might think of beams of light popping balloons or slicing through a metal slab like butter. Lasers...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Cold Compressors

A common way to provide cooling below the normal boiling point of helium (4.2K) is to reduce the pressure above the bath of liquid helium, thus also reducing the bath’s equilibrium saturation temperature. For example, to produce a 1.8K bath of liquid helium, the saturation pressure has to be reduced...

Kapitza Conductance

Kapitza conductance refers to the heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid that covers that surface. Fundamentally, it describes the inherent difficulty in transferring energy from a solid to the fluid covering the solid surface. This phenomenon was first observed by P. L. Kapitza in 1941 while studying...

Thermosyphons

A thermosyphon (or thermosiphon) is a device that transfers heat via natural convection in a fluid. The natural convection is driven by gravity with the colder, denser fluid flowing downhill and the warmer, less dense fluid flowing back up. Thus, thermosyphons connect an object to be cooled with a reservoir...

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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