The James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the development effort. The main industrial partner is Northrop Grumman; the Space Telescope Science Institute will operate Webb after launch.

Joseph LeConte Smith Jr., the Samuel C. Collins Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, died on May 7 at the age of 83.

Frederick J. Edeskuty, 89, long-time CSA member, Cold Facts columnist and expert on cryogenic safety, passed away on Friday, May 10. After receiving his doctoral degree in chemical engineering and physics at the University of Minnesota, he moved his family to New Mexico where he began a 40-year scientific career with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The US Department of Energy has conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (Freeport) to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States from the Freeport LNG Terminal on Quintana Island, Texas.

Scientists from 26 institutions around the world are planning a new experiment that could open the doors to new realms of particle physics. But first, they have to bring the core of this experiment, a complex electromagnet that spans 50 feet in diameter, from the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York to the DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a CSA CSM, in Illinois.

RI Research Instruments GmbH, a majority-owned subsidiary of Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST), announced the award of a contract for five radio frequency (rf) cavities for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) project, valued at approximately $5.8 million.

IceCure Medical reports that Dr. Eisuke Fukuma has treated 58 breast cancer patients with cryoablation over the last six years under a research protocol at Kameda Medical Center in Japan. As of now, they say, none of the patients have had a tumor reoccur or distant metastases. By choosing this non-surgical treatment, patients avoid the risks and potential cosmetic impact of major breast cancer surgery. The fact that none have had recurrences suggests that, with further study, cryoablation may offer significant, minimally-invasive breast health options, the company says.

Japanese trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi called for early approval for exports of liquefied natural gas to Japan in a meeting with Acting Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman, saying securing a relatively cheap energy source is crucial for Japan, Kyodo news reported.

Dr. Lapo Bogani from the Universität Stuttgart has been awarded the 2013 Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize. This prestigious award is sponsored by Oxford Instruments, a leading provider of high technology tools and systems for industry and research.

One of the more important properties of electromagnetic waves is that they can be transmitted over almost unlimited distance. However, the same cannot be said of magnetic fields. "The impact of magnetism in science is limited by an apparently insurmountable restriction: magnetic fields rapidly decay with the distance from the sources," say Carles Navau at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and his fellow physicists.

GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the General Electric Co., is honored to announce that Dr. E. Trifon Laskaris, Chief Engineer and pioneer in imaging technologies, has been awarded his 200th U.S. patent—a milestone previously reached by only one other GE research lab employee, Thomas Edison.

On April 26, the US House of Representatives passed a bill by a vote of 394 to 1 that would head off a critical shortage of helium that is sure to strike in October if Congress does nothing. That news should come as a relief to the thousands of scientists and technologists who rely on the stuff as an irreplaceable resource to run MRI machines, manufacture optical fibers and microchips, and cool samples to near absolute zero.