Technology and the built world

Crusher

A crusher, or rock crusher, is a machine that reduces rock, ore, or concrete to smaller fragments by compression or impact, chiefly in mining and mineral processing.

Crusoe Energy

Crusoe Energy is an American AI infrastructure company founded in 2018, best known as the builder of the 1.2 GW Stargate data center campus in Abilene, Texas.

Cruz de Lorena Oil and Gas Field

Cruz de Lorena Oil and Gas Field is a Vaca Muerta shale field in Neuquén Province, Argentina, producing since 2013 and operated by Shell Argentina with Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén.

Crye Precision

Crye Precision is an American manufacturer of tactical gear for military and law enforcement, founded in New York City in 2000 and known for MultiCam camouflage.

Cryo-compressed hydrogen storage

Cryo-compressed hydrogen storage (CcH₂) is a hydrogen storage method keeping hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures in a pressure vessel rated up to 350 bar, combining liquid hydrogen's density with compressed gas pressure tolerance.

Cryobot

A cryobot is a cylindrical probe that descends through ice by melting it, sealing the borehole behind it; NASA developed it to reach the subsurface oceans of Europa and Enceladus.

Cryocooler

A cryocooler is a small mechanical refrigerator that reaches cryogenic temperatures below about 120 K using compressed helium; common types include Stirling, Gifford-McMahon, and pulse tube coolers used in space telescopes and night-vision sensors.

Cryogenic air separation

Cryogenic air separation is an industrial process that cools air until it liquefies and distills it into nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, the route of choice for large tonnage gas supplies.

Cryogenic biogas upgrading

Cryogenic biogas upgrading is a separation process that cleans raw biogas by cooling and compressing it, so carbon dioxide, water, and hydrogen sulfide condense while methane stays gaseous, yielding high-purity biomethane.

Cryogenic CMOS

Cryogenic CMOS (cryo-CMOS) is the design and operation of standard semiconductor integrated circuits at deep-cryogenic temperatures, typically 4 kelvin, so control electronics sit close to the quantum bits they drive.

Cryogenic distillation

Cryogenic distillation is a separation method that liquefies gas mixtures at very low temperatures and distills them, splitting nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other gases by boiling point.

Cryogenic etching

Cryogenic etching is a plasma etching technique that cools silicon to −100 °C or below, protecting sidewalls with a thin passivation film; it re-entered 3D NAND manufacturing in 2024.

Cryogenic hydrogen purification

Cryogenic hydrogen purification is an industrial separation process that cools hydrogen-containing gas mixtures until impurities condense or freeze, leaving gaseous hydrogen as the purified product.

Cryogenic machining

Cryogenic machining is a cutting process that delivers cryogens like liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide to the cutting interface, extending tool life when machining titanium and hardened steels.

Cryogenic propellant

A cryogenic propellant is a rocket fuel or oxidizer, such as liquid oxygen or liquid hydrogen, that stays liquid only at extremely low temperatures and gives the highest performance among liquid propellants.

Cryogenic rocket engine

A cryogenic rocket engine is a liquid-propellant rocket engine that burns propellants stored at extremely low temperatures, most commonly liquid oxygen with liquid hydrogen or liquid methane.

Cryogenic treatment

Cryogenic treatment is a supplementary heat-treatment step in which hardened metal, most often tool steel, is cooled to very low temperatures to improve wear resistance and hardness.

CryoSat-2

CryoSat-2 is a European Space Agency Earth Explorer satellite, launched in 2010 to measure polar sea-ice thickness and monitor changes in the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.

Cryostar

Cryostar is a French manufacturer of cryogenic equipment, including pumps, turboexpanders, compressors, and filling stations for industrial gas, LNG, and hydrogen applications, founded in 1966.

Crypt

A crypt is a stone chamber, or group of chambers, beneath the floor of a church, typically under the chancel, used to house tombs, relics, or a chapel.

Cryptic Studios

Cryptic Studios is an American video game developer in Los Gatos, California, founded in 2000 and known for City of Heroes, Star Trek Online, and Neverwinter.

Cryptocurrency wallet

A cryptocurrency wallet, or crypto wallet, stores the private keys that authorize spending cryptocurrency recorded on a blockchain, ranging from phone apps to hardware devices and custodial exchange services.

Cryptographic hash function

A cryptographic hash function, also called a one-way hash function, maps data of any size to a fixed-length output, designed so that reversing it or finding collisions is infeasible.

Cryptographic nonce

A cryptographic nonce is a value used only once within a specified context, such as a single key; it may be random, a timestamp, or a counter.

Cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator

A cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator (CSPRNG) is a generator whose output stays unpredictable to an adversary even if the algorithm and part of the output are known.

Cryptography

Cryptography is the use of mathematical techniques to protect the security of information, providing confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation, and underpinning e-commerce and mobile communications.

CryptoLocker

CryptoLocker was a ransomware program that appeared in September 2013, encrypted files on Windows computers, and demanded payment for the key; law enforcement seized its servers in June 2014.

Cryptominer (malware)

A cryptominer is malicious software that uses a device or server's processing power to mine cryptocurrency for an attacker without the owner's consent, known as cryptojacking.

CryptoZoo

CryptoZoo was a blockchain-based NFT game co-founded by Logan Paul, launched in September 2021, in which players bought NFT eggs that hatched into animals and earned $ZOO tokens.