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Building the Quantum Workforce

For most of us, quantum computing, next-generation quantum sensing and quantum networking still belong to the future. But many early-career scientists and students are already preparing for that future. Physicist Reina Maruyama, who studies neutrinos and dark matter at Yale University, says she has seen a flood of students and postdocs...

The Shipping Industry Looks for Green Fuels

Look at all the surrounding stuff. Unless you’re in the middle of the desert or somewhere else far from civilization, nearly everything you see traveled to you by sea. “Ships bring 80–90% of most everything you want or need, or the raw materials used for making those things,” says Natasha Brown,...

Breakthrough Quantum Hardware to be Made in USA

Maybell Quantum unveiled the Icebox, a cryogenic platform to power the next generation of quantum computers. Maybell’s condenses a room-sized cryogenic setup into a system slightly larger than a kitchen fridge, cooling quantum devices to just a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. Maybell’s Icebox solves several pressing challenges...

JILA Atomic Clocks Measure Einstein’s General Relativity at Millimeter Scale

Physicists from JILA (formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, a physical science research institute at the University of Colorado Boulder campus and jointly operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] and the University of Colorado Boulder) have measured Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity...

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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...

Cryogenic Electronics

Randall Kirschman, consulting physicist, Mountain View, California ExtElect@gmail.com Cryogenic electronics—the operation of electronic devices, circuits, and systems at cryogenic temperatures—has been a valuable technology for decades. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics, or cold electronics) can be based on semiconductive devices, on superconductive devices, or on a combination...

Particle Physics: High Energy Physics

Cryogenics and High-Energy Physics 1. From symmetry magazine: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000627: Cryogenics is the study of how materials behave at temperatures near absolute zero. In high-energy particle accelerators, such frigid temperatures reduce the electrical resistance of wires in superconducting magnets, increasing the magnet strength and allowing faster particle acceleration. The same holds...

HTS Degaussing Systems

From the Spring 2009 issue of Cold Facts (Volume 25, Number 2): Thanks to a joint project by the US Navy and a number of industry partners, high temperature superconducting (HTS) technology is now at the heart of an advanced degaussing system aboard the USS Higgins at the naval station...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

From http://www.superconductors.org: An area where superconductors can perform a life-saving function is in the field of biomagnetism. Doctors need a non-invasive means of determining what’s going on inside the human body. By impinging a strong superconductor-derived magnetic field into the body, hydrogen atoms that exist in the body’s water and...

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...