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XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment Detects Unexplained Excess Events, Prepares Upgrades

Scientists from the international XENON collaboration announced on June 17 that data from their XENON1T detector, the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment, shows a surprising excess of events. While the scientists do not claim to have found dark matter, the source of the observed unexpected rate of events is...

US Military Getting Serious about Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

The US Department of Defense is getting interested in space-based propulsion. Through a May presolicitation, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced its intent to have a flyable nuclear thermal propulsion system ready for a demonstration in 2025.

Revolutionary Microscopy Technique Sees Individual Atoms for First Time

A “game-changing” technique for imaging molecules known as cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has produced its sharpest pictures yet and, for the first time, discerned individual atoms in a protein. The breakthrough reported by the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular...

Cryo-Ops 2020 to Connect Researchers, Industry Professionals in France

Cryo-Ops 2020, the 9th edition of the International Workshop on Cryogenic Operations, will be held in Grenoble, France, November 2-4. Organized by the Département des Systèmes Basses Températures (DSBT) and Université Grenoble-Alpes, the workshop will take place at the Institut Néel campus located in the world-class scientific GIANT (Grenoble Innovation...

DOE Announces New Lab Consortia to Advance Hydrogen, Fuel Cells

On June 23, the US Department of Energy announced that it will invest up to $100 million over five years in two new DOE National Laboratory-led consortia to advance hydrogen and fuel cell technologies research and development. One consortium will seek to achieve large-scale, affordable electrolyzers which use electricity to...

Rice Physicist Earns Grant to Study Magnetism

On June 23, the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences awarded Rice University experimental physicist Ming Yi a five-year grant to explore the details of magnetism in two-dimensional materials. She and her colleagues seek to learn the origin of magnetism in bulk materials that are exfoliated for use...

Latest in Defining Cryogenics

Helium-3

Helium-3 (3He) is one of the two stable isotopes of helium. The other is the much more common Helium-4 (4He). Neither of these isotopes should be confused with He II, which is the second liquid phase of 4He. He II was discussed in this column in the Spring 2010 edition...

Cryopumping

Cryopumping refers to the use of cryogenic temperatures to produce vacuum in enclosed spaces. More broadly, it can also refer to the removal of gases via cryogenic temperatures from a flow stream or enclosure without necessarily resulting in vacuum pressures. This is an important application of cryogenics and is used...

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations

Thermal Acoustic Oscillations (TAO) are a common event in cryogenic systems that can have significant adverse effects on the performance of the system. TAOs are sustained pressure oscillations that can occur in tubes containing gas, closed at one end (the warm end) that have a very large temperature gradient along...

Latest in Cryo Central

Cryogenics in Space

Peter Kittel University of California-Berkeley pkittel@cal.berkeley.edu Space Cryogenics is the application of cryogenics to space missions. These applications fall into two broad areas, supporting space science missions and supporting the space transportation infrastructure. Science applications: The atmosphere is opaque to much of the electro-magnetic spectrum. In space, the absence of...

Cryosurgery

Review of Cryosurgery Boris Rubinsky, PhD Hebrew University School of Science and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Engineering 78b Ross Building Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904 Israel rubinsky@cs.huji.ac.il as published in Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, August 2000, Vol. 2, pp. 157-187. Abstract: Cryosurgery is a surgical technique that employs freezing...

Liquefied Natural Gas

Liquefied Natural Gas as it relates to the Field of Cryogenics John W. Bonn VJ Systems, LLC johnbonn@vjsystems-lic.com Today the world is looking for a cleaner fuel and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plays a large part in achieving this goal. LNG in a liquid form is at -162°C (-259°F) and...

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

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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