St. Lawrence Students’ Sweet Experiment Featured in National Chemistry News
What happens when you dunk sprinkles in liquid nitrogen, then let them quickly warm back up to room temperature? Well, for one thing, you get featured in the news.
“We have a tradition in general chemistry at St. Lawrence where, at the end of each semester, we make ice cream using liquid nitrogen,” explains Assistant Professor of Chemistry Patrick Lutz.
That’s where Lauren Jesmain ’26, a pre-health chemistry major and general chemistry TA, and fellow gen-chem TA Chase Aubin ’26, got the mischievous idea for the experiment in the first place.
“We have a bunch of liquid nitrogen, we have a bunch of sprinkles, let’s put them together and see what happens,” Lauren recalls.
The pair didn’t think anything interesting would happen. But when they removed the sprinkles from the nitrogen, they began to crackle and explode.
“Lauren excitedly ran into the hall to show what they found, and I thought it was exciting, too,” Lutz says.
The unexpected reaction soon caught the attention of the entire Chemistry Department.
“I totally nerded out when I saw the sprinkles explode, and the whole chemistry department repeated the experiment to see what was going on," says General Chemistry Laboratory Coordinator Jennifer Schmeisser.
Afterwards, Lutz encouraged Lauren to submit the findings to Chemistry & Engineering News, which featured the experiment in a story.
So why did the sprinkles explode?
Lutz and Schmeisser hypothesize that, when the sprinkles are plunged into liquid nitrogen (−196 °C), rapid heat transfer makes the sugar structure brittle, while trapped moisture and air contract. The built-up stress releases in a sudden fracture—an eye-catching example of thermal stress and mechanical failure at cryogenic temperatures.
“So the sprinkles start to explode,” Lutz says.
As Lutz recalls Lauren excitedly running into the hallway, and the whole department coming together to check out the experiment, he says it’s the kind of scene that could only occur at a placelike St. Lawrence—where students and professors foster close, trusted relationships.
“I know Lauren really well, I’ve had her in four classes and she’s TA’d for me. That doesn’t happen in classes with, say, 500 students,” Lutz says.
Lauren, characteristically, redirected any praise sent her way back toward the University.
“It was fun to be part of something new and exciting, but really I’m glad St. Lawrence got to be recognized for the news, because our Chemistry Department does so many amazing things, and I just love this place so much.”
See Lauren and Chase’s Experiment on the St. Lawrence Instagram Page
