Cold Facts Digital – Page 63 – The go-to place for Cryogenics and Superconductivity

MINERvA becomes first neutrino experiment to use helium target

In a recent Quantum Diaries blog, Laura Fields of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory discusses this phenomenon. The MINERvA experiment is all about trying to understand what happens when neutrinos collide with ordinary matter.

Physicist builds the LHC, brick by LEGO brick

Physicist Sascha Mehlhase may have missed the actual construction of the ATLAS detector at CERN, but he found another way to experience the joy of building it – a way reminiscent of his childhood and the contents of a particularly good toy box he once had. He made the detector...

First Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN laureate announced

The first Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN was awarded December 6 to the 28-year-old German artist, Julius Von Bismarck, for the quality of his ideas and his ability to make playful creative collisions between the arts and science.

Freezing life: Cryogenics is the last hope for many endangered species

Scientists in the US and Australia are freezing samples of coral in hopes that polyp organisms and sperm may allow them to regrow coral in the lab and replace dying species in the ocean.

Jlab to test new ALON® windows for RF accelerators

This ALON optical ceramic, manufactured by Surmet Corporation, Burlington, Massachusetts, will be evaluated as a high power RF window material to replace the current “opaque” alumina window. At Jlab, ALON’s properties, such as thermal conductivity, thermal expansion coefficient and dielectric properties, will be measured down to liquid helium temperatures.

Linde’s breakthrough spiral freezer helps high production baker maintain competitive edge

Linde Gases, a division of The Linde Group, has installed its newly launched CRYOLINE® XF (Cross Flow) cryogenic spiral freezer at one of US-based Omni Baking Company’s plants in New Jersey. This high capacity compact freezer significantly increases frozen food productivity, reduces the amount of liquid nitrogen needed in the...

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

Looking for the thermal conductivity of the high density polyethylene (HDPE) between 1.9 and 10K

I am looking for the thermal conductivity of the high density polyethylene (HDPE) between 1.9 and 10K (or even up to higher temperatures). The best would be to have these data for the HDPE material which sold by the CERN shop, which has a density of 0.95 g/cm3. Pier Paolo...