But what if you drank an entire glass of pure liquid nitrogen?

但如果你喝下一整杯的液態氮會發生什麼事？

Is it dangerous?

危險嗎？

Could it cause your body harm?

會對身體造成傷害嗎？

First, what is liquid nitrogen?

首先，什麼是液態氮？

As the name implies, it's the liquid form of nitrogen gas, a colorless, odorless gas that makes up about 78% of our atmosphere.

就如名稱所示，液態氮就是液態的氮氣，一種無色無味，佔大氣含量 78% 的氣體。

Nitrogen turns into a liquid at -320 degrees Fahrenheit, much much colder than the 32 degrees Fahrenheit of your glass of ice water!

氮氣會在華氏 -320 度 (約攝氏 -195.5度) 時變成液態，比你手上華氏 32 度 (攝氏 0 度) 的冰水要冰多了！

Being so cold, there's lots of interesting things you can do with liquid nitrogen, like add a fun foggy effect to drinks or flash freezing foods.

液態氮那麼冰，所以可以拿它來做許多有趣的事，像是讓飲料冒出煙霧或是快速冷凍食物。

But while this stuff may look fun, liquid nitrogen is EXTREMELY dangerous if not handled correctly.

雖然這東西看起來很有趣，若沒好好處理，液態氮可是非常危險的。

Especially if it is ingested.

尤其是當你吞下它的時候。

First, what happens is that the majority of liquid nitrogen evaporates in your throat and turns into gas.

首先會發生的是，大量的液態氮會在你的喉嚨蒸發成氣體。

There's a tiny flap in your esophagus called the epiglottis that is there to stop gas from escaping out of your stomach.

你食道裡有個蓋子叫做會厭會阻擋氣體從胃部跑出。

This traps the cold nitrogen gas causing it to expand, which can cause burns and internal rupturing.

這會把冰冷的氮氣氣體困在食道使它膨脹，造成灼傷或破裂。

Things only get worse as the liquid nitrogen travels down into the stomach.

而當液態氮流到胃部只會更慘。

As happened to a young woman in the United Kingdom, the extreme cold of the liquid nitrogen can burn holes in your stomach and destroy the stomach lining.

這就發在英國的一個年輕女子身上，液態氮的超低溫度可造成胃穿孔與破壞胃黏膜。

The damage to hers was so bad that her entire stomach needed to be removed!

對那名女子造成的傷害嚴重到必須整個摘除胃。

If not treated immediately, this damage to the stomach and esophagus could even lead to death!

如果沒有立即治療，這樣對胃與食道的傷害還可能會導致死亡。

So while liquid nitrogen may be useful for cooking and fun for party tricks, please do not drink it, because it won't be fun for very long.

所以，雖然液態氮對下廚很有幫助，在派對上也很有趣，但請不要喝它，因為真的喝下去就不會有趣太久了。