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Brooks Automation Acquires Cool Lab, LLC

Brooks Automation, Inc. (CSA CSM) announced on Nov. 29 that it has acquired Cool Lab, LLC, a subsidiary of BioCision, LLC. Cool Lab provides a range of innovative, patented and patent-pending applications for sample cooling and freezing, controlled rate freezing, portable cryogenic transport and archival storage solutions for temperature sensitive...

New MRI Magnet Requires only 20 Liters of Helium

GE Healthcare has announced Freelium, a magnet technology that operates with 20 liters of liquid helium compared to the 2,000 liters needed by conventional MRI magnets. Hospitals using the technology, according to GE, would no longer require the extensive venting that often necessitates siting a magnet in a separate building...

India Set to Become Associate Member State of CERN

At an event on Nov. 21, Fabiola Gianotti, CERN's director general, and Sekhar Basu, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission and secretary of India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), signed an agreement admitting India to CERN as an Associate Member.

Bruker and Oxford Reach Deal for Superconducting Wire Business

The Bruker Corporation has closed a deal with Oxford Instruments for the $17.5 million acquisition of Oxford's Superconducting Wire LLC (OST). In the transaction, Bruker Energy and Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST), a Bruker subsidiary, acquired all shares of OST and announced the intent to fold the Carteret NJ based company...

Gecko-Inspired Adhesive Withstands Extreme Temperatures

Researchers have developed a new dry adhesive that bonds in temperatures ranging from -320°F to 1,832°F, a quality that could make the product ideal for space exploration where shade can be frigid and exposure to the sun blazing hot. It features vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with tops bundled into nodes...

LCLS X-ray Laser Reveals Ultrafast Riboswitch in Action

Scientists have used the powerful X-ray laser at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), located at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to take the first ever snapshots of an ultrafast riboswitch, a gene regulator that can switch individual genes on and off. According to the research team,...

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Two-Phase Flows

Two-phase flows are those flows in which there is a mixture of two physical states (solid, liquid or vapor). In cryogenic applications, such flows are almost always a mixture of a cryogenic liquid along with its corresponding vapor. A mixture of liquid helium and helium vapor would be a typical...

Supercritical Fluids

A supercritical fluid is defined as a substance whose temperature and pressure exceed those of its critical point. Every pure substance has a critical point that is defined in thermodynamic space by a critical temperature and a corresponding critical pressure. For example, the critical point for helium has a critical...

Brayton Cycle

The Brayton cycle is one of the many thermodynamic cycles used to generate cooling at cryogenic temperatures. Strictly speaking, when referring to cooling we should call this the reverse Brayton cycle as the original Brayton cycle describes the process of power generation or propulsion via a gas turbine. In many...

Magnetic Levitation

From http://www.superconductors.org. Magnetic-levitation is an application where superconductors perform extremely well. Transport vehicles such as trains can be made to “float” on strong superconducting magnets, virtually eliminating friction between the train and its tracks. Not only would conventional electromagnets waste much of the electrical energy as heat, they would have...

Superconductivity

From Superpower website. History of Superconductivity Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist, Heike Kammerlingh Onnes when he was able to liquefy helium by cooling it to 4 Kelvin, or -452°F. This enabled him to cool other materials close to absolute zero and investigate their electrical properties. He...

Medical Applications of Cryogenics

Neutron Therapy Cryogenics is at the heart of nuclear accelerators. Accelerators such as Fermilab’s Tevatron make neutron therapy for cancer possible. From Fermilab Today 4/20/09: Fermilab currently offers neutron therapy. But staff at Fermilab designed and built the proton accelerator used by the nation’s first hospital-based treatment center to use...

Nuclear Physics

Al Zeller National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) at Michigan State University zeller@nscl.msu.edu Cryogenics has a long history in nuclear physics. The technology has its origins in the use of cold traps for maintaining a vacuum, which is required to prevent beam loss and for generating high voltages used in acceleration....

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...