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What Is Liquid Nitrogen, and What Is It Used For?
Nitrogen gas makes up roughly 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere by volume, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. The element, discovered in 1772 by Daniel Rutherford, is a critical building block of all life on Earth and plays a key role in plant growth. When cooled to -320 degrees Fahrenheit, the gas turns into an ultra-chilly liquid.
Polish professors Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski became the first to successfully liquify nitrogen in 1883. Just 15 years later, the British scientist James Dewar developed a storage canister for the substance, which served as a prototype for modern LN2 storage containers.