Boiled Bananas

Since I'm sure Philip made you curious by saying there was a story about frozen bananas, I suppose I'll have to tell it. You probably know that lucky Philip has access to liquid nitrogen. Yesterday, Sachi and I had the marvelous opportunity to drop a banana in it. And then eat it. (The banana, not the liquid nitrogen!!!) 

Here is the recipe:

Obtain a bucket of liquid nitrogen.

Bring it to a boil (A temperature above 77 Kelvin will do--that's negative 321 degrees Fahrenheit)

Drop a banana in.

Fruitlessly (ha! pun-ness!) try to remove the banana (failing because you don't want to dip your fingers in too.)

Come to the conclusion that you should pour out some of the nitrogen so the banana sticks out farther.

Pour out some of the liquid nitrogen and watch the droplets skittle across the floor.

Remove the banana.

Drop on the ground repeatedly until it breaks into small chunks.

Wait for the chunks to get warmer (you can play with the liquid nitrogen during this time)

Pull off the peels and eat the frozen banana! But try not to eat parts that touched the possibly chemical-covered floor.

(Note: There's a good chance there will be a rule that you're not allowed to eat in the lab. This is probably why. My advice is to try to make sure people don't see you eating the banana. It worked for us.)

If that wasn't enough to make our day exciting, we also confused people on cell-phones. How is this done? Well, you give just enough information to make what you're doing sound strange. (Of course, you have to be doing slightly strange things in the first place.) Here are some examples:

*Ringing* "Hi! We're sitting on top of a statue. (more conversation) Eeek! Sorry, I was falling off." (It was an odd abstract shape, with many comfortable sitting places on it, none of which were more than three feet from the ground. She did start to fall, but it wasn't at all dangerous.)

*Ringing* "Hi! I'm outside on a window ledge."

*another phone rings* "Hi dad! I'm at MIT. We played with liquid nitrogen."

(-Did you tell him where you got liquid nitrogen? -No, only that I was at MIT.)

-Rebecca