...tell me about the freezer which gets colder than space...it sounds intruiging. What's it used for? Making the most epic popsicles ever? ...no? Oh. I suspected not.

That's such a cool theme for a Gallery!

[quote="Quinineer"] ...tell me about the freezer which gets colder than space...it sounds intruiging. What's it used for? [/quote] Have you heard of liquid nitrogen? Instead, we use liquid helium! Outer space is roughly 2.7 Kelvins (wayyyy below zero in Celsius or Fahrenheit), but our freezer gets all the way down to .5 Kelvins. (Liquid nitrogen is positively toasty by comparison, at 77 Kelvins.) We use it to cool metals down enough to start superconducting, which means electricity can flow through without getting slowed down or stopped.

[quote="Jasmine"] Have you heard of liquid nitrogen? Instead, we use liquid helium! [/quote] Ooh, I googled this and turns out that it looks kind of like water...? [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/2_Helium.png/220px-2_Helium.png[/img] What would happen if someone touched it, though, since it's super cold? Would their arm just freeze up instantly? [s]My my, I am being a little morbid with my questions.[/s]

Oh man, that's a pretty good theme for your gallery Jasmine! I love wearing those wildfire shades in the optics labs; I always feel so stylish.

[quote="Quinineer"] What would happen if someone touched it, though, since it's super cold? Would their arm just freeze up instantly? [/quote] Ah, so there's actually two things at play here! There's temperature, but then there's total amount of heat. Your body stores a lot of heat, so if you touched a little liquid helium, you'd probably get a nasty burn on your finger, but then the heat from your body would warm the helium up. (The burn wouldn't be instantaneous, though! With liquid nitrogen, just getting your hand close to the liquid causes some of it to warm up into a gas, which protects your hand from actually touching the cold liquid. If you're fast, you can actually dunk your hand in a bucket of liquid nitrogen without getting hurt!)

what's the scientific function of hot chocolate?

Sometimes the equipment isn't working and the data doesn't look right and I need a pick-me-up. That's what the hot chocolate is for. (I don't drink coffee.)