Microscope Slide Cooler

A poor man's microscopy cryo stage. We use this to prepare air-sensitive single crystals at low temperature in an inert atmosphere, but I don't see why it couldn't be used for other purposes such as biological samples. The idea is creating a cold upward N2 or air gradient over the sample, which is constantly replaced. The slide itself has a large contact surface with the cold gas flow, which helps maintain a constant sample temp. The gas is cooled by passing it through some sort of heat exchanger (LN2 or dry ice bath).
Slides can be slotted in and out if the sample is reasonably flat (1mm clearance).

The device is compact enough to be carried in a pocket. One crystal mounted on a standard sample holder can be held in the recess and locked in place, e.g. for mailing. In a test, we disconnected the device from the nitrogen flow, covered the inlet and outlet, slid on the lid and buried it in dry ice overnight. The next day, the device could be reconnected and manipulations continued n