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CERN Establishes Task Force to Contribute to Global Fight against COVID-19

CERN has established a task force to identify and support contributions from the organization’s 18,000-strong global community to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The design of a novel ventilator, expected to be tested by healthcare experts in the coming weeks, is an early application of CERN’s technology to combat the international...

New ‘Refrigerator’ Supercools Molecules to Nanokelvin Temperatures

MIT physicists have found a way to cool molecules of sodium lithium down to 200 billionths of a Kelvin, just a hair above absolute zero. They did so by applying a technique called collisional cooling, in which they immersed molecules of cold sodium lithium in a cloud of even colder...

How Industrial Gas Firms Are Meeting Medical Oxygen Demand for COVID-19 Patients

Gas companies worldwide have ramped up delivery of gas cylinders and are installing new on-site liquid oxygen tanks and supply systems in hospitals as demand surges for medical oxygen to treat patients with COVID-19. The European Industrial Gases Association says members such as Air Liquide (CSA CSM) and Linde (CSA...

Wagyu Calf Born after Conception with Freeze-dried Semen in Japan

On April 17, Japan's Miyagi Prefecture announced a Japanese black wagyu calf, conceived with freeze-dried semen, had been born--a breakthrough expected to lead the way to stably storing genetic resources of the premium beef.

Hot Qubits Made in Sydney Break One of the Biggest Constraints to Practical Quantum Computers

A group of researchers led by Professor Andrew Dzurak at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, has developed a proof-of-concept quantum processor unit cell on a silicon chip that works at 1.5 Kelvin—15 times warmer than the main competing chip-based technology using superconducting qubits being developed by Google, IBM...

Tempshield Publishes “How to Care for Cryogenic Gloves and PPE in Age of Infection”

Whether mitigating the risk of COVID-19, Norovirus or the common flu, it’s vital that researchers and other front-line workers can avoid infection while doing their jobs. As such, proper care and cleaning of cryogenic gloves, cryogenic protection, face shields and other personal protective equipment (PPE) cannot be overlooked. Tempshield (CSA...

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

Presence of alloying elements in tool steels

I want to expand my knowledge of cryogenics in general and tool steels in particular. Specifically, I am keenly interested in learning about the presence of alloying elements in tool steels and how their presence in various combinations affects the performance of tool steels after cryogenic treatment.

Pros and cons of barcoding samples

I was wondering if I could ask for input on pros and cons of barcoding. We are in the process of trying to decide if we should start barcoding our samples and I’m just not sure if this is feasible for our organization. We have numerous sites all over the...

Purity level of helium gas stream in cryo plant purification system

I would like to know what the principal methods and the relative instrumentation to check the purity level of helium gas stream in the purification system of a common helium cryogenic plant are. What principles are these instruments based on? And what are their principal characteristics?

LN2 for cryopreservation through controlled rate freezing of samples

I am the cryogenic specialist for a stem cell bank in Greece. I am trying to find the minimum requirements (purity, humidity, etc.) of liquid nitrogen for cryopreservation through controlled rate freezing of biological samples.

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