Word: liquidators
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...return to their previous attitudes, they emit radiation that produces detailed images of the body's soft tissues. MRI machines in use today are enormous (6 ft. by 8 ft. by 10 ft.), largely because of the more than $100,000 worth of bulky insulation required to preserve the liquid helium coolant, which costs an additional $30,000 annually. The improved economics of the new superconductors, says Walter Robb, of General Electric's Research and Development Center, should eventually enable medical institutions to install many more MRI machines, which are invaluable for diagnosing disorders like brain tumors...
Giant particle accelerators are one target for possible upgrading. Currently the most powerful such devices use conventional superconducting electromagnets. If high-temperature superconducting magnets can be developed, millions of dollars could annually be saved in electrical and liquid-helium bills...
...smaller scale, superconductors have already been used to create superfast electronic switches called Josephson junctions (after Nobel Laureate Brian Josephson, the British physicist who discovered the principle on which they are based), which until now could operate only at liquid-helium temperatures. For both technical and economic reasons, IBM abandoned its Josephson junction project in 1983. But IBM Physicist Sadeg Faris quit the company, obtained licenses for the technology and formed Hypres, Inc., which has begun marketing its first Josephson junction product -- a high-speed oscilloscope. Says Faris: "The new materials are at a primitive stage, but we're anxious...
...current pushes against the field of the magnet, the ship moves forward. Saji has already moved up his timetable and hopes to complete a 100-ton "magship" within four years. "Thanks to the new materials," he says, "magnets will be lighter and easier to handle. Once we can replace liquid helium with liquid nitrogen, the whole process of outfitting the ship will be simplified. It's a fantastic development...
...planning the train, Japanese engineers chose superconducting magnets ( because for a given input of electricity they generate more intense magnetic fields -- and thus greater lifting and propulsion power -- than conventional electromagnets. The drawback: the liquid-helium coolant needed for the superconducting magnets is expensive, and a heavy compressor is required in each coach to reliquefy the evaporating helium. That is why maglev engineers are excited by the idea of the new high-temperature superconductors, which would use considerably less expensive liquid nitrogen as a coolant and require far smaller compressors. The developments of the past few months, says Research Chief...