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Editor-in-Chief:
James Stankowicz
Assistant Editor:
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Online Editor:
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Cryogenics - The Coolest Class Around
by James Stankowicz

Cryogens play an integral part in areas ranging from magnetic imaging to rocketry to ice cream making (if you're an SPS member), and refrigeration in general has had such an all encompassing impact on humanity that the only way to truly appreciate it is to pause and think of where we'd be with no A.C., no ice on demand, no refrigerators, and on and on.

Superfluid liquid helium flows with no viscosity. This allows it to display quantum wave properties on a macroscopic scale – one of the only substances known to do so – one might say it is currently a hot topic in quantum physics.The Microkelvin Lab is the coolest place in the universe. Seriously. With the average temperature of space somewhere around 2.7K, the milli-Kelvin and micro-Kelvin temperatures produced just next to the Hub are in a league of their own.

Every time you walk around campus, you're walking on top of several kilometers of piping used in UF's helium recovery system – a system that serves as a model for universities across the country.

All these factoids come straight out of the material covered in Cryogenic Engineering (PHY4550/PHY6555C), a split undergraduate and graduate course taught by Dr. Gary Ihas during the Spring semester. This is a three-credit course scheduled to meet two periods Tuesdays, and one period Thursdays. The department says that the course requires two semesters of chemistry, two semesters of physics, and partial differential equations – although personal experience has been that P.D.E. isn't particularly useful, and some background in quantum mechanics and thermal physics goes a long way. If you're interested in taking the course but don't meet the requirements, talk to Dr. Ihas and chances are you can work something out. There are no exams, and the percent breakdown goes: 40% for class participation, 10% for homework, and 50% for a 10 minute presentation on a library-research paper each student gives at the end of the semester at the 'Cryogenic Mini-Symposium'. The book used for the course is somewhat expensive – but it is the hottest seller on the market.

The lectures are done from Power Point, and it is one of the few science classes where that is actually a satisfying medium. The aim of the course is different from many other undergraduate physics courses in that the point is not so much learning how to solve problems (although there is a little of that) as it is to get a good foundation in the history and basic principles of making stuff cold. Homework is assigned every two weeks or so, and Dr. Ihas uses the assignments as material in class, which ensures variety. For instance: one assignment was to write a few pages (in the three-ish range, but including pictures) on a cryogenic disaster, which Dr. Ihas presented in the 'safety' section of the course. Finally: there are field trips. The first was a tour of the cryogenic facilities on campus. Later Dr. Ihas has one planned to the MicoKelvin Lab, and one at the end of the semester to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee. Be forewarned, though: as an undergrad you're expected to finance your own way.

This is a fantastic upper level class to take in the physics department. So long as you put in some time and effort, there should be no GPA strain, and, more importantly, it covers the coolest materials in all of physics. (I apologize for the abundance of puns, but, what can I say? I think they're cool.)