-195.8 °C

The boiling point of Nitrogen in case you were wondering.

After school I took the girls to the Sheffield University Science Department Discovery Night - an evening where they open up a lot of the science departments with demonstrations, talks and activities geared around increasing the public's awareness of their work and to fire the imaginations of young scientists.

We started off in the Animal and Plant Sciences department, mainly because it was the department I graduated from in '95. I wasn't exactly the best of undergraduates for one reason and another, so although I was eager to show the girls where I studied and wanting to see the place again, I was hoping not to bump into any of my old tutors or lecturers. Guess what? Yep - first lab, my first year tutor. Guess I was worse than even I remember as he couldn't clearly recall me - phew!! Just for a bit of small-world-bizarreness: he's an old friend of yesterday's Blip's father and my best man!!!!! Weird.

After a look round the zoology museum we headed for a couple of demonstrations/lectures: the first on the effects of liquid nitrogen and the second on explosions and other interesting reactions. Top chemistry that had all the children fascinated, especially given that the guy (head of faculty) doing it used the liquid nitrogen to make ice cream that he then handed out. I preferred the smashing of the frozen tulip myself. A one on one with him would be an amazing photography shoot!!

Saw quite a few members of my class in there too which was terrific.