Air Liquide has completed a major upgrade and expansion of its Bayport industrial complex located just east of Houston. The complex covers 88 acres of land and supplies oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen, electricity, steam and industrial and demineralized water to customers in many industries. The facility is central to Air Liquide’s extensive Gulf Coast Pipeline System, encompassing approximately 2,000 miles of pipeline along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.

An international scientific team has produced the first direct evidence of a Cooper pair density wave, a state of electronic matter first predicted by theorists in 1964. The discovery, described in a paper published in Nature, may provide key insights into the workings of high temperature superconductors.

Fermilab welcomed its first baby bison of 2016 on April 26 and by the next day a herd of its social media followers were birthing puns in a tongue-in-cheek #BisonNaming contest. Fermilab suggested the first name, Neil EatdeGrasse Bison, and followers took it from there. Suggestions included Higgs Bison, Bisotron, Quarky, Graze Pascale and MiniBisoNe.

A University of Cambridge led project aims to develop a new architecture for future computing based on superconducting spintronics. Researchers on the project, dubbed Superspin, say it will pave the way for a new generation of ultralow power supercomputers capable of processing vast amounts of data at a fraction of the energy consumption of comparable facilities.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is perhaps one of the most cost efficient satellite launching organizations in the world today. The two principal series of launch vehicles it uses are the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geo Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). GSLV has three stages, the third of which is a cryogenic stage … Continue reading Cryogenic Heat Exchangers for Space Exploration

Cryogenics remains an integral part of research conducted at several Department of Energy National Labs, from novel cryostats used to cool telescope equipment to the dilution refrigerators driving nanoparticle studies. SLAC - Menlo Park CA The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, for example, is no stranger to cryogenics. Researchers there are working on two astrophysics and … Continue reading Around the Labs – A Road Trip to Cryogenic Facilities

Cryoport, Inc. has entered into a strategic partnership with Worthington Industries, bringing together two established cold chain companies. Cryoport provides logistics solutions for a range of industries including biopharma, animal health and reproductive medicine, while Worthington, through its recently-acquired CryoScience by Taylor Wharton product line, manufactures cold chain storage, transport vessels and equipment that provides critically reliable transportation of biological commodities. According to the agreement, Worthington will design and manufacture biostorage and logistics equipment for use in Cryoport’s life sciences cryogenic logistics solutions.

This monograph provides comprehensive guides to the often counterintuitive behavior of cryogenic mixtures and to how good practice can minimize the risk of catastrophic events. The theoretical basis for the phenomena described is followed by a full discussion on the practical implications and results, often with real life examples.

Researchers from Purdue University have demonstrated a phase transition that crosses two different phase categories, a result never observed before and one that could in time profoundly influence our understanding of matter and phases of matter. The transition from a topologically ordered to a broken symmetry phase was unexpected, and came while the scientists were studying gallium arsenide under both extreme pressure and at temperatures reaching 12mK.

Hydrogen is very attractive as a green fuel because it burns in air to produce only water—and possibly some nitrogen oxides and hydrides—and therefore has a zero carbon footprint. As an energy store and fuel, liquid hydrogen has a high ratio of combustion energy per unit weight and is particularly useful as a space rocket fuel with minimum weight penalty. However, its liquid density is very low and the ratio of combustion energy per unit volume of liquid is about half that of other fuels such as LNG, LPG and other hydrocarbons. The consequences of this fact will create a problem when doubling of the volume for bulk storage and transport is compared with the volume of other fuels.

Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking and other distinguished researchers joined internet investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner at One World Observatory to announce a new Breakthrough Initiatives project focused on space exploration and the search for life in the Universe. Called Starshot, the $100 million research and engineering program aims to demonstrate proof of concept for light-propelled nanocrafts. Such starships could fly at 20 percent of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, just over 20 years after launch. The program will be led by Pete Worden, the former director of NASA Ames Research Center, and advised by a committee of world-class scientists and engineers.

A team of researchers at the Institute for Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich has shown that particles can be made to "feel" each other even over large distances, resulting in the observation of novel phase transitions that result from energetic three-way battles.

NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) has released a new report that suggests storing pharmaceuticals at cryogenic temperatures on deep space missions, including proposed expeditions to Mars. At issue is both prolonged exposure to radiation and mission lengths that extend well beyond a product's shelf life.

A research team led by the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory (CSA CSM) has discovered that only half the atoms in some iron-based superconductors are magnetic, providing a conclusive demonstration of the wave-like properties of metallic magnetism in these materials. The discovery allows for a clearer understanding of the magnetism in some compounds of iron (the iron arsenides) and how this magnetism helps induce superconductivity, the resistance-free flow of electrical current through a solid-state material that occurs at temperatures up to 138K, or -135°C.

Scientists from the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have synthesized ultrathin films containing multiple samples of a copper oxide cuprate in order to study its electronic behavior at near absolute zero. As with other cuprates, the compound is an insulator in its native state and does not readily conduct electricity. Cuprates can become superconducting, however, when chemically doped with strontium atoms, producing (in this case) free-moving electrons in the compound that pair up in the crystalline copper oxide layers where superconductivity is known to occur.

University of Houston physicists report finding major theoretical flaws in the "Bean" or "Critical State Model," a generally accepted theoretical explanation of how a superconductor traps and holds a magnetic field. The team's research, published in the Journal of Applied Physics, reveals unexpected new behaviors favorable to practical applications, including the development of energy-efficient ore separators, non-contact magnetic gears that will not wear or require repair, red blood separators with improved yield or even an automated docking system for spacecraft.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resumed operations on March 25 when CERN researchers opened its doors to allow particles to travel around the ring for the first time since the year-end technical stop (YETS) began in December 2015. Several updates and interventions took place in LHC accelerators and beamlines during the 11 weeks of YETS, including maintenance of cryogenic systems and the modification of vacuum chambers to allow less restricted movement of 12 LHC collimators.

Construction is underway on a major upgrade to LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source), a unique X-ray laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The project, known as LCLS-II, will add a second X-ray laser beam that’s 10,000 times brighter, on average, than the first one and fires 8,000 times faster, up to a million pulses per second.