Derek Perseus Wong CWRU Graduate Student School of Medicine
crEYEogenic This top-down view of an open liquid nitrogen tank resembles an eye, staring directly back at the scientist who is about to retrieve or store a precious sample of cells. Also known as a cryogenic tank, these storage systems are critical for biological research because they preserve cells at -196 °C/-350 °F, keeping them alive but in a state of hibernation so they can be used at a future date. Without these canisters, there would be no way to preserve samples from patients with diseases such as cancer, impairing the research that depends on those samples for finding that elusive cure. Each of the four racks in this tank can hold five boxes; each box can hold 81 samples. This means that one tank of this size can store up to 1,620 different cell samples. This ability to preserve life through indefinite stasis is oftentimes taken for granted, but the cryogenic tank simply does its job. It opens its eye when it is needed, staring back as its cornea clouds with the wisps of evaporating liquid nitrogen, its green iris scratched and chipped away as the metal racks are removed and replaced, day in and day out.
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