Data centers can be kept cool by circulating fluid over plates atop high-temperature components or by submerging equipment in non-corrosive oil that does not conduct electricity.

Data centers require interconnected server- and building-level cooling systems

Computer equipment can be cooled by circulating cold air or water through the equipment racks, siphoning the heated fluid into a heat exchanger. This exchanger transfers thermal energy to building cooling systems, which can dispose of the heat by evaporative cooling—the way humans cool off by sweating—or via air conditioning.

Watch a server submerged in a fluid continue to run and stay cool by boiling the liquid away.

Data centers' electrical needs create increased water demands beyond cooling

Each query uses approximately one single-serving water bottle per conversation, but water is also used for steam cycles and cooling in power plants that generate electricity for data centers. Newer cooling methods, such as immersion cooling, where servers are submerged in fluids that don't conduct electricity, can minimize water use.

Thermodynamics makes building data centers in space to cool equipment impractical

Rather than cooling via interactions with flowing cold air or water, data centers in space would dissipate energy primarily by radiation, in which an object at any temperature above absolute zero emits light. This method is much less efficient at cooling and would require hyperscale data centers to have radiator panels thousands of times larger than those on the International Space Station.

Watch a time-lapse of the construction of a data center

After the external structure of a data center is built, cooling systems are installed, followed by interior offices and other rooms. Before installing racks of servers and other equipment, floors are raised beneath where they will be installed to create space for cold fluid to be pumped into the hardware and to facilitate cable management.

Some materials can absorb low-energy light and emit high-energy radiation

Through anti-Stokes cooling, incoming energy is combined with vibrations in a material's crystal lattice to produce a net reduction in its temperature. Using this effect, lasers can be directed at microchip hot spots to help keep data centers cool.

Health workers may cool body temperatures with convection cooling

That's spraying a patient with water and putting fans over them. Cooling the body by removing clothing and placing cold water and ice packs—and not blocking evaporation—are essential cooling steps.

View the layout and components that make up a typical data center

Alongside server rooms for the storage, processing, and transmission of data, data centers include climate control systems to manage the heat generated by microchips, backup systems to ensure systems can run during power outages, offices for on-site personnel, and monitoring and security stations to provide continuous protection against physical threats.

IBM Quantum’s dilution refrigerators keep quantum processors colder than space

In IBM’s quantum lab, quantum processors are kept at a temperature of 15 millikelvin using dilution refrigerators. These refrigerators use nested thermal layers, cryogens like liquid nitrogen and helium, and powerful compressors to maintain the ultra-cold temperatures required for qubit stability and performance.

Most data centers rely on the local power grid to feed power-hungry computer equipment

These facilities house rows of vertical racks containing multiple types of hardware, including servers that provide 24/7 access to online applications, services, and data. In a hyperscale center with thousands of these racks, the annual electricity used is estimated to equal that of 400,000 electric vehicles.

Water vapor is used to manage heat in high-end smartphones

While smartphones have traditionally been cooled using a highly conductive plate that dissipates heat from the chip, vapor chambers offer a higher heat-removal capacity. This technology has been utilized in laptops for decades to absorb heat by cycling a fluid between liquid and gaseous phases.

Synthetic diamonds may be used to cool microchips

The strong carbon bonds in diamonds efficiently carry vibrations, allowing them to conduct heat several times faster than copper, a metal commonly used in heat sinks. AI and high-performance computing have pushed researchers to investigate alternative materials for cooling solutions.

Carbon-neutral data centers may be possible if built within wind turbines

Wind turbine towers are typically hollow, housing only cables and a ladder for maintenance access. The excess electricity a wind turbine collects could power a stack of server racks more than 100 meters (328 feet) high within its tower.

Some geothermal power plants make electricity using a secondary fluid

Direct dry-steam systems pull underground steam into a turbine-generator system, while flash and double-flash cycle systems spray extracted liquid water into a low-pressure tank, causing it to rapidly vaporize—"flash"—before moving to the turbine. Binary cycle systems use the extracted steam and water to flash a second fluid that easily boils, which then drives the turbine.

Sand 'batteries' can store excess electricity from the power grid as thermal energy

Energy collected from solar or wind power is used to heat insulated silos full of sand to temperatures as high as 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit), which can be retained for long periods. These thermal energy storage systems can be designed to boil water and generate electricity when needed.

Most of the critical mineral supply needed for US data centers is imported

The country with the most data centers relies on other nations for about 80% of the rare earth elements needed for magnetic materials in storage drives, 64% of the silver and 85% of the platinum it uses for electrical circuitry, and about half the aluminum and copper used in heat sinks that dissipate thermal energy from electronic components.

Water acts as a coolant and a moderator of nuclear reactions in reactors

Nuclear reactions within a containment structure boil water into steam, which drives a turbine that generates electricity. This water is then recirculated via pumps back into the containment structure to repeat the process, with reaction rates lowered by the insertion of control rods that absorb neutrons, which trigger reactions.

Modular data centers can be transported on a truck for rapid deployment

Bypassing the complications involved in building larger facilities over the course of several years, such as construction costs and permits, these pre-fabricated, self-contained pods, roughly the size of shipping containers, can carry thousands of graphics processing units for small- and medium-scale AI-related tasks.

Research suggests AI data centers may be creating microclimate heat islands

An analysis of satellite data from 2004 to 2024 showed that land surface temperatures in the areas surrounding AI data centers typically increase by an average of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) after they begin running. Across the 6,000 global data centers analyzed by the study, temperatures increased by as much as 9.1 degrees Celsius (16.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

How helium turns the Large Hadron Collider into the world's largest cryogenic system

Across three stages, five "cryogenic islands," and weeks of cooling, 36,000 metric tons of magnets are successively brought down to temperatures colder than outer space using a closed liquid helium system. Helium continues to circulate during the collider's operation to maintain the magnets' temperature and the transmission of electrical current with zero resistance.

A basement of mechanical systems—collectively called the technosphere—supports B2

Twenty-six underground air handlers heat, cool, filter and manage the humidity of the air across the biomes of Biosphere 2. The above-ground Energy Center complex provides continuous power to these and other systems, including heating and cooling water for laboratory experiments and personal use.

Integrated circuits are made with light and require significant purified water and chemicals

The nonstop operation of fabrication plants, which takes months to manufacture a wafer of hundreds of integrated circuits, strains local resources and generates significant chemical waste. Much of the electricity consumed is used to maintain clean room conditions within plants.

Heat pumps use an easily boilable chemical to regulate temperature

In air conditioners, warm air is pulled from a home to turn a refrigerant into a gas, which is then compressed, raising its temperature. The gas naturally releases this energy to the comparatively cooler environment when exposed, then expands and is reused in the system. Heaters run in reverse, with the refrigerant picking up energy from the comparatively warmer environment.

Faraday cages protect enclosed objects by redirecting electrical currents

Constructed from conductive materials, the cage allows electrons to distribute themselves evenly throughout its surface and travel to ground, keeping the interior neutrally charged and preventing any internal electricity. The same principle blocks electromagnetic waves by redirecting the electric field component, preventing telecommunication signals from entering the apparatus.

Solid-state batteries substitute the fluid electrolyte layer with a solid

The non-flammable solid greatly reduces the risk of fire and explosion, as well as the release of toxic gases via leaks in the existing sulfide-based systems. These batteries use garnet-type solid electrolytes, which provide high ionic conductivity and chemical stability but require temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) for fabrication.

Temperatures colder than Pluto can allow electricity to flow resistance-free

Since its discovery in 1911, applications of superconductivity have made MRI machines and maglev trains possible due to quantum effects at extreme temperatures. These effects are modeled as electrons cooperating in pairs and flowing more efficiently.

Fish in polar waters contain proteins in their blood that act as antifreeze, and some manufacturers have used lab-grown versions of these proteins to help keep ice cream smooth.

City structures cause localized heat zones hotter than nearby rural areas

Urban materials like asphalt and concrete trap heat, while cities lack cooling features like trees and water. Due to hot runoff, urban streams can heat up by as much as 18°F more than forested streams.

Learn how air fryers cook food without the use of oils

While deep or pan frying involves oil transferring thermal energy to the food, air fryers warm food through constant airflow, which prevents the formation of a boundary layer of cold air around the food, though air is a worse conductor of heat.

Learn why electrical substations are needed to provide safe electricity with minimal energy loss

These typically fenced-off facilities with steel boxes or cylinders topped with cone-like caps house circuit breakers, fuses, and switches that can isolate sections of the grid to prevent electrical failures from spreading. Substations use transformers to modify electrical voltage and are customized to the generation, transmission, and distribution networks they interconnect.

How freeze-drying leaves food with less than 4% of its original water content

In specialized equipment, foods are brought down to temperatures below freezing before a vacuum pump removes the air from the container, lowering the pressure around the food and the boiling temperature of water. Heaters beneath the food slowly raise its temperature above the now-reduced boiling point, causing the water to go from a frozen to a gaseous state.

Webb's sunshield enables extreme cooling for precision space observation

To avoid interference from its own heat, the telescope uses a five-layer shield to stay ultra-cold and stable, allowing its instruments to function at cryogenic temperatures. One instrument, MIRI, gets so cold it needs a helium-powered cooler to reach just 7 Kelvin, or -447°F.

Rain-catching tubes provide new hydropower source for tropical regions

An experiment in Singapore showed that charge separation could be established by rainwater flowing through narrow tubes. The separation, which creates a voltage, could be scaled up in regions of high rainfall to provide a clean energy source.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Fast charging can lead to battery degradation if the device does not stay cool

Modern phones use software to monitor charging habits and can activate adaptive charging to delay charging rates and prevent overheating. When charging, devices should not be confined (e.g., stored in your pocket) or placed in direct sunlight, as this can trigger heat warnings and sudden shutdowns.

RTGs convert heat generated by the decay of radioactive plutonium into electricity

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators use a thermocouple—two plates of different metals joined at two junctions to make a closed circuit. When heating one junction while keeping the other cool, a voltage and an electric current are created.

Cooling each square foot of a room requires at least 20 BTUs of capacity

British thermal units describe the cooling capacity of air conditioners, though noise levels, directional airflow, and filtration also affect their effectiveness. Insufficient BTUs are unlikely to cool a large enough room faster than the environment warms the air.

Heat slowly moves through Earth's mantle like softened wax

Energy trapped during Earth's formation and released via the radioactivity of elements is carried by convection currents towards the surface, while cooler, denser material sinks. The planet's core is almost as hot as the sun's surface.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Clouds' subtle climate effects require significant computational power to simulate

Responsible for reflecting sunlight and preventing thermal energy from entering the Earth system while also trapping energy and keeping it in the system, clouds are understood to substantially influence climate predictions. Because even supercomputers struggle to accurately model their dynamic behavior, researchers have used AI to indirectly incorporate clouds into climate models.

Bath bombs can produce endothermic reactions that cool water

In bath bombs containing citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, water facilitates the reaction between the bicarbonate and acid, providing energy as the salt dissolves. The loss of energy in the water reduces the average speed of the water molecules, reducing the temperature of the bath.

Tour Brother Zhang's repair shop to see how graphics processing units are fixed

The workshop repairs 40 to 50 GPUs from across China daily, extending the life of the costly computer parts that are the lifeblood of the hardware powering AI tools. By salvaging working components of different GPUs, custom parts can be built atop printed circuit boards, including custom GPUs that manufacturers do not currently produce.

Deep Space Network sites enable nonstop communication with distant spacecraft

Each DSN complex has multiple large, sensitive antennas that can receive weak radio signals from far-off spacecraft and send commands back to them. Their amplifiers are cooled to just above absolute zero to reduce electronic noise.

Radioactive waste solutions include glass smelting and dumping into graphite blocks

Since radioactive materials can take seconds to millions of years to decay, their disposal or storage requires creative solutions. Besides turning liquid waste into glass or storing medical waste in lead-lined rooms, spent nuclear rods are stored in deep-water pools.

A guide to building your own cloud chamber to observe cosmic rays

Using felt, alcohol, dry ice, and a clear container—such as a fish tank—you can create a region of supersaturated air that will cling to passing particles, forming trails of cloud-like droplets. Muons will create straight paths, alpha particles will leave thicker ones, and electrons or positrons will zigzag.

Physicists detect the sound of heat in superfluids, theorized since 1938

Referred to as "second sound," the flow of heat in a superfluid resembles a sound wave bouncing back and forth. The heat-mapping techniques used to make the detection may improve the study of neutron stars and superconductors.

The flow of electricity in AC circuits flips back and forth, unlike DC circuits

Alternating currents in the US change the flow direction 120 times every second, allowing for efficient transformation and transmission of energy across power grids by sending energy at lower currents. This is changed into one-way direct currents when powering electronics.

Explaining the engineering challenges of extracting metal-rich nodules from the seafloor

Proposed solutions for collecting these potato-shaped rocks involve lifting a slurry composed of them, organic debris, and water through several kilometers of flexible tubing to a ship on the surface, a process that is more difficult than pumping crude oil. One method would use compressed air, but this method is only 15% energy-efficient.

Home energy performance can be boosted through home orientation and shading

When designing a home, placing living areas to the north maximizes sun exposure during winter, while eaves and awnings can limit excessive summer heat. Breezeways and entry air locks can also reduce the dependence on heating and cooling costs.

Metals can be welded together in space without needing heat

On Earth, oxygen naturally reacts with metals to form an oxide layer on their surface, which prevents two different pieces from fusing when they come into contact. If the layer is worn away without oxygen to replenish it, metals can instead stick together upon impact—a phenomenon known as cold welding.