Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Types of biological materials that can be held in Cryogenic Storage

Cryogenic storage is very helpful when storing biological materials. Because a cryogenic freezer can freeze things at -150 degrees Celsius (refrigerated storage is about 5 degrees Celsius and typical freezer storage is about -20 degrees Celsius), it can store many biological materials without letting them go bad.
Some of the biological materials that can be stored are:

- Blood
- Plasma
- Bone
- DNA
- RNA
- Explant device storage (hips, mesh, etc.)
- Tissues and cell lines
- Agro and plant samples
- Pathology and legal specimens
- Stem cells and cord blood
- Fluids and urine
- Clinical supplies
- Serum
- Slides

This is just some of the things that can be held in cryogenic storage. The control of the temperature of valuable biological materials is very important. From storing sperm samples, blood samples to even ways of storing food, cryogenic freezing is one of the best ways to ensure pristine preservation.

Labs that have cryogenic freezers are more likely to have more beneficial biological samples and have more accurate tests for blood, DNA or other animal tissues. Thanks to cryogenic storage, biological materials can be held for a long time and won't spoil or deteriorate. This is important in guaranteeing to those who need biological specimens preserved.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Handling Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Nitrogen Equipment

Handling liquid nitrogen and liquid nitrogen equipment can be very dangerous, so there will be a need for extreme precaution for everyone who is involved. Liquid nitrogen is a dangerous material that can cause burns and loss of oxygen levels in the air. For example, if a 10 liter dewar is spilled in an unventilated 274 square foot room with an 8 foot ceiling, the oxygen levels would reduce to 19.5 percent. There would be a need for air respirators. Of course, this is a small room and most labs and classrooms are much larger and the oxygen levels should remain relatively high during a spill. However, when transporting the liquid nitrogen and liquid nitrogen equipment in a truck or van is a different story.
But suffocation isn't the main problem with liquid nitrogen and liquid nitrogen equipment. Freeze burns are a much more serious danger. This will cause the greatest concern when building an LN2 freezer.

These are the things that you should be worried when dealing with liquid nitrogen:

- Splatters, especially in eyes, while pouring
- Flying pieces of frozen objects
- Touching the nitrogen or other cold objects

So it's important to stress several precautions which include no touching and the use of goggles. Whenever pouring liquid nitrogen, it can splatter or spew out frozen pieces. It's also important to wear gloves and use tongs to handle any object that is being placed in or out of liquid nitrogen.

When handling liquid nitrogen and liquid nitrogen equipment, it's important to ensure safety to avoid any possible injuries.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Using Cryogenic Freezer Systems to Preserve Fruits and Vegetables

When people think of cryogenic freezer systems or cryogenically freezing things, they immediately think of freezing dead bodies to preserve them for the future. However, cryogenics have advanced way past common science fiction plot lines. In actuality, cryogenics help us with every-day life.

Many food distributors use cryogenic freezing to preserve fruits and vegetables. Freezing preservation is important in retaining the quality of agriculture products over long storage and shipping periods. As methods of long-term preservation of agricultural products, freezing is far superior to canning and dehydration in regards to retaining taste and nutrient properties. Cryogenic freezing is cheaper than the dehydration or canning process, while using up less resources and time. When the overall cost is considered, freezing is the most cost-effective of any method of food preservation.

The frozen food market is one of the largest and most diverse sectors of the food industry. From TV dinners to frozen strawberries, the frozen food sector has a value of more than $27.3 billion in the United States alone. To keep this business alive, cryogenic freezer systems have played a large part in the refrigeration of food products. The success of cryogenic freezing comes from the elimination of heat from low temperature points towards points with higher temperatures. The cryogenic system achieves this through the use of liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide to keep the products frozen and unable to spoil.

Remember the next time you go grocery shopping, there's a chance that some of the food in your grocery cart are made possible through the advancements of cryogenic freezer systems.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Safely Handle a Liquid Nitrogen Dewar

Safety experts say that nitrogen, despite its inert quality, causes more fatalities than any other chemical found in laboratories. That's why it's important that your cryogenic freezer system has a high-quality, reliable liquid nitrogen dewar. Our staff at Princeton Cryo Tech will always make sure that every one of our products, including dewars, are the highest quality. It's the best way we can help avoid catastrophic events occurring in a laboratory.

When a person is surrounded in a purely nitrogen atmosphere, oxygen flow is reversed from the arterial blood and tissues back into the lungs, causing unconsciousness. This is a very dangerous situation and similar effects can occur when working with liquid nitrogen in a laboratory setting. Liquid nitrogen chilled vapor collects near the floor, but can still cause unconsciousness after inhaling the vapor. Interestingly, though, over half of workers who die in confined spaces are attempting to rescue unconscious workers. So not only are the unconscious in danger, so are the people who try to help them.

If you work with nitrogen in your lab, it's important to have up-to-date safety meetings. In addition to meetings, training should take place, along with maintaining the best quality liquid nitrogen containers and equipment. Princeton Cryo makes sure that all of our products, like a liquid nitrogen dewar, will prevent laboratory accidents.

Dewars are designed for storing and dispensing liquid nitrogen. They are easy to operate and are constructed of high-quality materials. For more safety insurance, laboratories should be equipped with high-quality cryo gloves while keeping employees informed of all the proper safety techniques when handling these dangerous chemicals. Most of all make sure you have a reliable liquid nitrogen dewar from Princeton Cryo.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Cryogenic Freezing Helps the Food Production Business

Cryogenically freezing food has become a way to transport large masses of frozen food and promote a better overall product during production. This is helpful when transporting to hard-traversed areas such as battlegrounds or natural disaster struck areas. Or it's helpful to the mass dispersion of food through the country and world.
However, a cryogenic freezer can also be used in a food industry that is vast. Processing things from hamburger, strawberries and bread can be quite different. Special cryogenic gasses can promote seed germination in plans while stunning the meat of animals and fish during slaughter. Although this is not gentler on the animal, it produces a better quickly of product. The science of cryogenics has improved the mass production of food.
CO2 gases can help the ease of de-boning of meat, while delicate baking items, such as muffins cakes and scones, can be stored in a ln2 freezer and shortens production time. These are all results of the boom of cryogenics.
This method of freezing preservation drops the temperature at which organisms are unable to spoil. Basically it makes water unavailable for microorganisms and for chemical reactions, allowing a longer shelf life to food that would otherwise spoil quickly. So using a cryogenic freezer or LN2 freezer is one of the best ways to enhance the food industry.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Cryogenic Freezer Sperm Bank Says 'No Thanks' to Redheads

One of the world's largest cryogenic freezer sperm banks in the world is now rejecting red-haired donors. It's simply for the fact that Cyros International's the stock of red head sperm specimens have filled to capacity.

The clinic says that redheads are still is high demand in Ireland, but it's not enough to for the bank to accept donations. They have 140,000 doses of sperm from redheads, which is more than enough right now. Cryos International also said they won't take any Scandinavian donors for the time being, unless they have brown eyes.

Although, the cryogenic freezer clinic is not closing its doors to all redhead sperm donors altogether, cups are still accessible to those who have brown eyes. The main issue is that many Scandinavian donors have blonde and red hair, which stems back to their Viking ancestors that populated Scotland and Ireland.

The sperm bank is also looking for more Black, Asian, Hispanic, Mediterranean and mixed-race donors so they can offer potential parent with options of all races and ethnicities.

For a blue-eyed redhead, sperm may be in higher demand if he is smart, tall, athletic or musical. The U.S. first sperm bank located in Birmingham, Mich., says they are still looking for redheads, though, and has no problems with overcapacity. Of course, potential parents overall prefer donors who are athletically or musically inclined along with high education. Sometimes parents even want a specific blood type.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Cryogenic Storage: MoreThan Just Science Fiction

In popular culture, cryogenic freezing is known as a scientific device by which people who are eager to witness to the future – or who are simply rich enough to – freeze their own bodies after death, in hopes that future medical science will have advanced enough to revive them.

Historical figures like Walt Disney have been suspected of cryogenically freezing themselves, and fictional ones like Austin Powers have parodied the process. Real-life scientists have actually done it, like Robert Ettinger, founder of the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, who froze family members after they died and has been frozen himself after passing only a few weeks ago; and Robert Nelson, a television repairman who joined the movement in the 1960s and will be depicted in a movie based on his life directed by Errol Morris with his character played by Paul Rudd.

Outside the science fiction and real-life hype, however, cryogenics is actually a significant part of the average person's life. Workers in hospitals and labs are more aware of this. Entire rooms are used to keep cryogenic storage safe, whether it is a liquid nitrogen dewar or a cryogenic freezer.

Cryogenic equipment is relied on to keep important body tissues preserved, like blood and stem cells. Some people choose to cryogenically freeze umbilical cord blood, for scientific research or potential use in the future. Cryogenic storage is commonly used in fertility clinics, where liquid nitrogen equipment is used to preserve human semen and eggs, embryos, and ovarian tissue. Many people who have experienced fertility problems have thus benefited from this practical use of cryogenic equipment. Cryogenics is more than simply scientific entertainment; it's an important tool in hospitals and medicine.