SAMS

Hello future scientists!

We hope you guys had a good time at O-week, either to get a taster of what university life has to offer, or if you’ve been here before, to meet up with people you haven’t seen all summer. For those who turned up to our demonstration on Wednesday, we want to thank you for coming– we had the biggest crowd yet. We hope you all got a chance to eat some liquid nitrogen ice cream, crush flowers with your bare hands, or launch bottle rockets against each other. If you came down to visit our humble stall to say hi, we all had a blast meeting all you guys, and we’ll get your details all sorted really soon. 

So let’s look at what’s ahead. We’re going to have our AGM (Annual General Meeting) on the 9th of March, sometime in the evening. It will be where we take care of ASSSoc related matters, so if you want to join the society, please turn up and nominate yourself for a position in our team. Come and join our society– our meetings are sparse and succinct, and it would look great on your resumé when you graduate.

The AGM will also coincide with our first social event of the semester, which will be a Trivia Night. Anyone can come, so if you have friends doing other courses, or are in other years, or are from different universities, feel free to bring them along. Stay turned in this corner to find out more about our Trivia Night!

Your classes start next week at 9 AM! Now you’ve enjoyed O-Week, get ready for a whole new world of learning. 

Two things us Advanced Scientists love are science, and liquid nitrogen. Combining the two, and you get something worthy of a demonstration at the ASSSoc demonstration this Wednesday morning at the Quad (10AM). 

We’re going to make some ice cream with the help of liquid nitrogen, and we’re going to make an excess, which is why we want you guys there to help us eat it all up! But before we make it, let’s have a look at the SCIENCE behind liquid nitrogen (or LN2).

LN2 boils at standard atmospheric pressure at roughly -196ºC, so you’ll be right if you inferred that it is an extremely cold substance. It’s pretty useful too– we use it to cool electronics, smash tissue or plant matter in smaller bits to extract DNA, and to keep our cell cultures preserved and fresh. LN2 has a low viscosity, so when dropped onto a flat surface, it seems to form beads that travel with little relative friction across the surface, until it finally evaporates into nitrogen gas. 

But most importantly, it can be used to make the best ice cream. When making ice cream commercially, manufacturers rapidly cool, and stir their ice cream mixture to create the smallest ice crystals within the product. This gets them that smooth texture we all associate with ice cream. Whenever you take ice cream out of the freezer the uppermost layer melts and later recrystallises when replaced into the freezer, resulting in a gummy layer that isn’t very appetising. 

When we use LN2 to make ice cream, the product freezes so rapidly that the ice crystals fail to form large structures, leaving us with ice cream that’s smoother than commercial products. Barring the use of liquid helium (it’s 50 times more expensive than LN2), this will be the closest thing you get to the best ice cream you’ll ever taste!

Remember, we’re making ice cream, and doing other fun things at the ASSSoc demonstrations at the centre stage in the Quad, this Wednesday at 10AM!

This is it, guys– O-week is here, and we want you to join us! 

If you’ve already experienced Advanced Science as a first, second or third year student, have heard of us, and would like to join or help us, we’re always looking for volunteers to look after the stall. Just send us an email (ASSSoc@gmail.com) and let us know you’re willing to help out, and on which days you’re available.

But to the new students, welcome to Advanced Science at UNSW. If this is your first year of studying at a university, rest assured it is NOT a scary place and you’ll learn to love it dearly. If you have some free time, come by our stall (we’re located at Stall 76, which is on the footpath on the corner at the top side of the Red Centre). We’re happy to answer any of your questions (literally ANY questions related to anything)– just ask us at the stall. You can also send us an email at ASSSoc@gmail.com or use our ask facility here. We will also be providing you guys with a guide to get you settled into University.

We’re going to be running pretty exciting things this week too! We’ve got the stage booked on Wednesday morning for a science demonstration. Ever wanted to extract some DNA? Check! Ever wanted to see ice cream being made using liquid nitrogen? Check! Just come by the Quad on Wednesday around 10 AM. 

See you guys in O-Week!