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Study: Online comments hurt science understanding

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that Americans may be as much influenced by reader comments at the end of science news articles as by the articles themselves, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Time magazine honors Fabiola Gianotti and the Higgs-like boson

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is celebrating Time magazine’s naming of its ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti as runner-up for 2012 Person of the Year (an honor bestowed on US President Barack Obama) for her leading role in the endeavor to discover the Higgs-like boson. Shown is a mock...

A temperature below absolute zero

Physicists at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching report that they have created an atomic gas in the laboratory that has negative Kelvin values.

Superconductors for efficient wind power plants

An efficient, robust, and compact wind power plant with a 10 MW superconducting generator is being developed by partners from industry and science within the recently established EU project SUPRAPOWER (SUPerconducting, Reliable, lightweight, And more POWERful offshore wind turbine).

A eulogy to Herschel

In January's Physics World, Steve Eales, a University of Cardiff astronomer who leads one of the telescope's largest surveys, explains how this space facility has advanced our understanding of star and galaxy formation.

Heat flows ‘backwards’ across Josephson junction

Tim Wogan in physicsworld.com reports that the thermal Josephson effect, which occurs when heat is transported across a gap between two superconductors, has been measured in the lab for the first time.

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

Specs and info on turbo expanders

I am a fourth year chemical engineering student doing a design project for the liquefaction of natural gas to DME and we are using a turbo expansion unit. I was wondering whether you would send me some specs and any additional information on turbo expanders that I could use as...

Colleges that offer cryogenic studies

Would you happen to know of any colleges in the US that offer cryogenics as a major? If not, should I major in something like biology or physics before, then branch off to the field of cryogenics? Any information that you could give me would be greatly appreciated, considering this...

Sudden loss of vacuum in LHe storage dewar

I’m trying to find data on what happens when a 100 Liter LHe storage dewar experiences a catastrophic failure such as a sudden loss of vacuum. If anyone has any info on this subject, it would be very helpful.

Data on hardness of Indium?

Where can I find experimental data on the hardness of Indium, as a function of temperature, as well as any existing data on the thermal contact conductance of junctions containing Indium foil, also as a function of temperature?

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