I'm sure you guys have seen this before...comments?

[Imbroglio]

[ShinCanadaSen]

New to me, But now I know what I want for My Birthday !!!!!!

 

Pretty cool stuff.

[Imbroglio]

All I want for Christmas is the new n gauge NEX train, but either way, my wife santa may invoke the "economic crisis downturn we need to save every penny" martial law.

[Martijn Meerts]

Seen it before yes, not sure how financially viable it is though considering you need to store up on liquid nitrogen =)

[cteno4]

A german company was selling these a while back. by just putting the exhaust port on the liquid nitrogen out the rear of the train you get a jet powered maglev train!

 

not all that hard to get liquid nitrogen, besides you can freeze all sorts of interesting things in it and then shatter them! no end to the fun. we froze a whole cheesburger, frys and malt from a favorite local joint in berkeley in liquid nitorgen and then shipped it on dry ice out to one of our classmates who had just moved to nyc for a postdoc and was missing them. came out pretty well on the other side when thawed! ahh those late nights in grad school with a building full of dangerous chemicals and supplies! so much fun! liquid nitrogen, dry ice, nitro cellulose, flammables of all sorts, natural gas, lab equipment, ahh the fun. every play flaming tennis ball soccer with the lights out?! takes a unique blend of alcohols to get it to say lit well, leave a flaming trail and have pretty colors to boot but not too hot if you get your sneaker on fire...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[CaptOblivious]

A unique blend of alcohols indeed... :D

[cteno4]

A unique blend of alcohols indeed... :D

 

of course or scuzzo gin made from the lab 95% ethanol (we checked the nmr, it was clean!) helped a lot!

 

jeff

[grumbeast]

I just love it when scientists go bad.. I wish it happened more.  I've missed out on being a real Scientist (Comp Sci and AI) but I have hope for my niece who likes she's going to be a chemist.

 

Graham

 

 

not all that hard to get liquid nitrogen, besides you can freeze all sorts of interesting things in it and then shatter them! no end to the fun. we froze a whole cheesburger, frys and malt from a favorite local joint in berkeley in liquid nitorgen and then shipped it on dry ice out to one of our classmates who had just moved to nyc for a postdoc and was missing them. came out pretty well on the other side when thawed! ahh those late nights in grad school with a building full of dangerous chemicals and supplies! so much fun! liquid nitrogen, dry ice, nitro cellulose, flammables of all sorts, natural gas, lab equipment, ahh the fun. every play flaming tennis ball soccer with the lights out?! takes a unique blend of alcohols to get it to say lit well, leave a flaming trail and have pretty colors to boot but not too hot if you get your sneaker on fire...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

oh we were bad, really bad. when working like 18hrs a day in the lab, sometimes round the clock you had to blow off the steam somehow or throttle the person at the bench next to you! he when its 2am and you have to wait 2 hrs for something to finish and you are in a room full of chemicals, fixtures, tubing, clamps, etc you cant help but have your mind wander to what you could blow up, set on fire, shoot across the room or a good prank on someone for the next morning! creativity is the mother of science!

 

we were a very small department at berkeley, only 17 profs, so it was like a big family. we had lots and lots of fun, worked really hard and played really hard and supported each other with fun, beer, and shoulders to cry on. really wonderful. no wonder that we have had a nobel prize winner, second in charge of nih, a few biotech millionaires, and a lot of well known scientists come out of that tiny place and time, way above the average from the other top departments at the time. was sort of magical.

 

near the end of grad school some of the profs decided that a mega department was the way to go and started the process to fuse about 4 small departments into one large one with about 100 profs. they put it to the students to see what their opinion was. it was a unanimous vote (i was the messenger being the grad student rep to the faculty committee and was put on the permanent s#$t list of the chairman) against the mega department. we had a list of the things it would do to destroy what we thought was the core of the beauty of the grad student experience. basically they told us we were stupid little grad student and would become wiser when we were older... I went back about 4 years after the fusion to visit with them and all the profs were whining ad naseaum about how the students were now 9-5, didnt care, had no creativity or spirit. go figure. did not have the heart to say told you so!

 

so this fun atmosphere is not standard, but can be there in the right set of circumstances and can really be a wonderful addition to the slave days of grad school. If your niece decides to go to grad school tell her to make sure to visit and spend as much time with the students at perspective schools as possible. it will tell the tale. if they are having fun and working really hard, its probably going to be a great place to go to school. if they are dull and out at 5 it will be a bummer of a time for 4-5 years!

 

cheers

 

jeff