When you’re working with liquid helium at temperatures hovering around 1.38 degrees Kelvin, you can’t simply order the necessary supplies – you have to make them.
The laboratory group of Wolfgang J. “Jim” Choyke, research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, uses a dewar – or flask – made from custom-blown glass and metal fashioned in the glass and machine shops for the task, which Choyke calls “absolutely essential for what we do.”