That is weird. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a sample dewar that couldn’t last two weeks, most are fine for a month or more. How the hell are they designing their sample storage system, that it’s only go of for four days? Are they insulating with Styrofoam?
It has terrible consequences if used wrong, but do know that most biologists & geneticists are as wary of the consequences as you are. Most folks see it as a tool exclusively for remedying debilitating genetic conditions, but that’s a slippery slope, and there’s a consensus that impermanent techniques like siRNA therapies offer many of the same benefits but with substantially less risk.
We’re not going to get Gattica anytime soon, and the misuse of these technologies is going to be driven by commercialization of this technology and by investors, not by scientists. Frankly, the best tool to prevent misuse of CRISPR might be to limit for-profit use.
Cool! If there’s an easy way to set this up yourself, it’d be a good classroom demo for how electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques work :)
I can answer questions 2 and (tentatively) 4!
When freezing samples, they are cooled rapidly to form vitreous (noncrystalline) ice. If the ice warms enough (and that temp is still well below 0°C), it can transition into a crystalline form. This makes the ice expand and become spiky, which can damage proteins and cells.
For differences in LN2 usage, not every dewar is created equal. Age, the degree of vacuum between the walls, and the distance between the inner and outer walls can substantially affect the thermal conductivity, and thus the boil-off. Differences in how they are capped (which by nature can’t be vacuum-insulated) can also change their efficiency.