• Question: what was the hottest thing you have touched in your life and what is the coldest thing you have touched

    Asked by 263tema37 to Joe, Jos, Kate, Lisa, Pierre on 10 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by jubjub.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I try not to touch the samples I work with till they’ve cooled down but occasionally you make a mistake – I think the hottest one I have touched was probably at about 300 C but I had protective gloves on so it didn’t hurt. Likewise at the “cold” end, I have had liquid nitrogen run across the back of my hand when a seal failed – colder than -196C, but again, I had gloves on so it wasn’t dangerous.

    • Photo: Joe Reed

      Joe Reed answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I don’t really work with any samples, my work is 99% on a computer, but I do remember putting a quiche in the oven once and burning my arm ( I still have the scar!). Don’t think i’ve touched anything colder than ice or snow – and I think I would like to keep it that way!

    • Photo: Lisa Simmons

      Lisa Simmons answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I don’t think I’ve ever touched anything really hot, maybe when I was doing my undergraduate and we were doing some thermodynamics experiments but the samples for that were only about 100C.
      In the cold anything I’ve had some accidents with liquid nitrogen, usually when I fill the microscopes. At almost -200C that’s pretty cold.

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