Midsummer Report

We apologize for the lack of posts this summer. Salvador has retreated to his native land of Portugal, where he is busy making port wine and sailing on expeditions to find as yet uncharted trade routes to India, which is apparently what all Portugese do. Under the gray clouds above Estonia, I am hunting seals and ploughing fields near the local fort - when I'm not singing, that is, which is apparently what all Estonians do.

Unsung Heroes of Scientific Progress

Science - the uncannily successful process of constructing a working model of the Universe. It takes comparatively little food and money to sustain a working scientist, however these alone will not guarantee success - which brings us to the unsung heroic liquids of scientific progress:

Liquid nitrogen and coffee.

Most scientists never consider the extent to which modern science relies on the above duo. Enter any modern laboratory, no matter what field, and in the far corner you will spot the familiar silvery cylinder, inconspicuously puffing out vapor. Liquid nitrogen cools telescope cameras, freezes cells and samples, keeps your superconductor superconductive and helps in countless other ways. Coffee containers are also easy to spot, being stored on every floor of an institute, often even in hallways for easy access. This is crucial, as a scientist past the 4-hour half-life of consumed caffeine in the body will be utterly incapable of systematic work, even as crucial as handling liquid nitrogen dewars.

As a side note, the illustration[1] at left clearly shows that caffeine-drugged spiders, as opposed to their "clean" friends, are quite horrible at making neatly organized webs. One is left to wonder why it works the other way with scientists...

oh, wait... perhaps it doesn...

But let's not go there. I'm sure depriving the world's scientists of coffee with the excuse of finding out if a completely harmonious new global scientific paradigm will emerge would lead to disaster anyhow: simply delay the pizzas for an institute lunch by ten minutes to see why.


A few fundamentals:

• Storage: dewars for liquid nitrogen; jugs for coffee
• Optimal temperature: 77 kelvin for nitrogen going into equipment; 330 kelvin for coffee going into a scientist (theoreticians often accept 300 kelvin coffee and record-holding theoreticians can even survive coffee at room temperature)
• Swirls of steam emanating from the liquid are a healthy sign for both substances
  
• Prices: starting at €10 per liter of liquid nitrogen or kilogram of decent coffee, cheaper in bulk

Behind every great man, there is a woman. And behind every great scientist, there is a dewar.

References:
[1] Image from Wikipedia entry on caffeine. (c) NASA

Did someone mention creationism?