Sounds pretty crazy, right? You’re probably thinking −210°C must be an instant freeze! Isn’t that how Terminator II movie depicts Liquid Nitrogen? Apparently the reality of it is somewhat different and less scary. Sometime ago I conducted a personal experiment and briefly inserted my fingers into a container with Liquid Nitrogen. I did so after doing some research on the subject of course. As expected, nothing bad happened.
But don’t get me wrong. Liquid nitrogen is dangerous if mishandled. A prolong exposure will indeed give you frostbite of various degree and may cause irreversible damage. Add to it the fact that liquid nitrogen vapor is nitrogen gas containing no oxygen, which can most certainly suffocate you. But if handled properly, the cold produced by evaporating liquid nitrogen could be put into good therapeutic use. In fact cryotherapy is definitely not something that appeared of nowhere overnight. The video below is an educational/promotional film I made with my friends explains some of the therapeutic uses of liquid nitrogen.
The things talked about in the film come from personal experience as well as from quite extensive research conducted before making of the video. Also this was my first attempt at directing a documentary/educational film :).
Enjoy,
KK
