Experiments that probe the exotic behaviour of matter at ultralow temperatures depend on the latest cryogenics technology. This special collection explores the tools and techniques used at cryogenic temperatures, as well as some of the latest research in low-temperature physics.
On the hunt for helium
Most sources of helium are discovered by accident, but geoscientists are developing new ways to find this incredibly useful element
Into new environments
How a small engineering firm expanded to develop scientific instruments for vacuum, ambient and cryogenic conditions
Training webinars from the British Cryogenics Council
The British Cryogenics Council has worked with Physics World to provide three training webinars on the use of cryogenics technology in scientific research. The webinars can be watched live in Cryogenics Week, which runs 23–27 July 2018, or you can catch up on demand at any time.
Cryogenic safety (23 July, 14.00 BST)
Presented by Robert Done, a project design engineer at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK
SUPERINSULATION – heat transfer and influences on insulation performance (25 July, 14.00 BST)
Presented by Holger Neumann, divisional head of cryogenics of the Institute for Technical Physics at KIT, Germany
Applications of cryogenics: past, present, future (27 July, 14.00 BST)
Presented by Jorge Pelegrín Mosquera, a research fellow at University of Southampton, UK
Cryogenics in action
Rotons spotted in Bose–Einstein condensate
Quasiparticles detected in cigar-shaped optical trap
Superfluid chirality mapped using MRI
Chiral domains in helium-3 emerge spontaneously
Show us your metal
Harvard physicists Isaac Silvera and Ranga Dias claim they made metallic hydrogen, but other remain unconvinced. Jon Cartwright explores both sides of the argument
‘Magic-angle’ graphene is an unconventional superconductor
Electronic properties can be changed by misaligning two graphene sheets
Evidence mounts for Majorana quasiparticles in solids
Ultra-clean observations could lead to topologically-protected quantum computers
Squeezed light plays a quantum drum
Microscopic drum cooled below quantum limit
Ultracold atoms behave like a ferrofluid, say physicists
Spins in Bose-Einstein condensate oscillate in unison
Videos explain supercool physics
Directions in superconductivity
Superconductivity – pairing up with nanotechnology
Nanostructures remain crucial both in attempts to better understand superconductivity, as well as efforts to apply it
Down the path of least resistance
A century after its discovery, Paul Michael Grant explains why superconductivity still confounds and baffles us today
Taming serendipity
Laura H Greene calls for a global collaboration in the search for new high-temperature superconductors