Even cooler: spilling liquid nitrogen on your self and getting skin necrosis. Even way cooler: getting that flesh cut away in the hospital so gangrene doesn't develop.

Old. Really old.

Cybernetic: An asian-looking guy named "Luke Bowden" with a British accent.

/You can't explain that.

asian australian derp

One of the best demos I ever saw using liquid nitrogen was at the physics lab at the local college where they showed what an effective cleaner it was for workbenches. Just pour enough onto a flat surface and it removes *everything* and stacks all the residue up in neat lines of frozen powder as the nitrogen evaporates.

Need to get ahold of about 50-60 gallons of that and hit up the garage.

/also, frozen Peeps FTW.

That's nothing.

When will they have a cooking demonstration where they vivisect the diner, open his midsection, cook the meal and then dump it into his open stomach.


Alternately you can swallow whole lobsters and then kill them by punching yourself in the stomach.

Next thing you know, Martha Stewart is shoving a turkey up her ass.

Jake Havechek: Even cooler: spilling liquid nitrogen on your self and getting skin necrosis. Even way cooler: getting that flesh cut away in the hospital so gangrene doesn't develop.

The stuff needs caution, but I really wonder how much contact time is needed for damage.
I would bet that a spill would evaporate before frostbite could set in.

Please do not eat or drink liquid nitrogen straight up, as subby seems to suggest. Holding a small amount in your mouth for a short time shouldn't hurt, but if you swallow you'll likely have to have some of your esophagus and stomach surgically removed.

CSB time:

As a grad student I was running an experiment using a liquid nitrogen-cooled photomultiplier tube. Each day I'd take a 30-L dewar that sat on plywood platform with casters on the bottom, and wheel it through the basement of the Physics building and out to the loading dock where we had the big tank, fill it up, and wheel it back. After a while I get pretty good at using this setup as a skateboard, and would go whizzing back and forth from loading dock to lab. One day I'm shooting down the hallway with a loaded dewar, and the wheel hits a crack in the concrete floor, stopping the base, but not the dewar. It goes off the cart, tips over, and starts emptying its load, 30 L of hissing steaming fury blowing down the hallway. It looked cool, and would have been no big deal, except at the end of the hall there was some kid sitting on the floor outside his professor's office, waiting for office hours. He looks up, sees this roiling torrent of liquid and fizzing vapor screaming down the hallway at him and he screams--screams just like a little girl--and in one fluid motion sweeps up the book on his lap, the papers by his side, and his backpack, and goes SHOOTING through the door at the end of the hall. I've never seen anyone move so fast.

But I can already do that, with tobacco.

/at any temperature
//you go ahead and drink that liquid nitrogen though

I have many times done this with marshmallows in demonstrations to kids. Usually right after a long talk about how cold the stuff is, etc. Parents usually are a bit skeptical about letting their 6 year old eat one first, but the effect is the same as in the video.

Dried Fruit seems like it would be too hard, but it depends on how dry. I'll give it a shot next chance I get.

/Leidenfrost is your friend
//Oxygen replacement, on the other hand, is quite serious.

Blais did it



/hot
//or...cold?

Maybe it's just me and my functional illiteracy in thermodynamics, but this strikes me as a very bad idea.

Cybernetic: An asian-looking guy named "Luke Bowden" with a British accent.

/You can't explain that.

Yes, I can. It's called being "Culturally Ignorant". Like when I nearly dropped my uppers the first time I met a BEAUTIFUL Asian woman that had a Brooklyn accent. Found that when my family was going through Ellis Island her family was working on their second generation of Americans. It's always a head rip the first time it happens in person. If you're lucky,(like I was) you meet a patient person that doesn't take offense at your ignorance.
please note that this is far different from being "Culturally Insensitive" which is a whole different kettle of fish.

wallywam1: Steam? I don't think that means what you think it means.

Its sciuntificy!!

Mmm.. Frozen marshmallows are delish. And I don't like marshmallows (at least the cheap store bought stuff). Drop some in liquid nitrogen for 10 seconds and eat - with the bonus that you breathe out the cold air that looks like smoke.

urban.derelict: But I can already do that, with tobacco.

/at any temperature//you go ahead and drink that liquid nitrogen though

How about room temperature?

Pretentious twat.

When I was in grade 3 (way back in the care-free era of lawn darts and real chemistry sets) I visited the Ontario science center, and after they did the usual demos of shattering flowers and shrinking balloons they invited kids from the audience to come up and dip their hand into a container of liquid nitrogen. It was an interesting feeling, not cold or wet (because of the insulating gas layer) but a definite pressure around my hand.

Don't put it in your mouth. I remember reading about one physicist (Feynman IIRC) who used to do that until one day it came in contact with one of his teeth and cracked it. Never swallow it (new window).

Freezing food does not equal cooking.



While it is a cool technique, it can hardly be described as a method of cooking.

Over the Christmas break, I heard an interview with the author of "Cooking for Geeks" and one of the recipes he had was using liquid nitrogen to make goldschlager-moca ice cream.... Claimed the taste was out of the world....

Skyd1v: One of the best demos I ever saw using liquid nitrogen was at the physics lab at the local college where they showed what an effective cleaner it was for workbenches. Just pour enough onto a flat surface and it removes *everything* and stacks all the residue up in neat lines of frozen powder as the nitrogen evaporates.

Need to get ahold of about 50-60 gallons of that and hit up the garage.

/also, frozen Peeps FTW.

It causes a lot of surfaces to crack or blow up. The flooring under liquid nitrogen tanks is always cracked and crumbling from all the people who spill.

Levian: Please do not eat or drink liquid nitrogen straight up, as subby seems to suggest. Holding a small amount in your mouth for a short time shouldn't hurt, but if you swallow you'll likely have to have some of your esophagus and stomach surgically removed.

It's been done. There's a horrific story floating around that was written by a survivor. It's better not to even risk it by holding it in your mouth.

I can't believe that no one picked up on the fact that thd british asian dude claimed they were going to cook with nitrous oxide. Now THAT could make things very interesting.

Jake Havechek: Even cooler: spilling liquid nitrogen on your self and getting skin necrosis. Even way cooler: getting that flesh cut away in the hospital so gangrene doesn't develop.

You can shove you hand in a vat of liquid nitrogen without getting hurt thanks to the Leidenfrost effect. Spilling a little on yourself isn't going to do a thing.

Link (new window)

/ Came for Big Trouble in Little China
// Left happi