Professor shatters laptop poured with liquid nitrogen.

Some professors give warnings or grade deductions to students who fail to adhere to classroom policies. Others send them away with shattered laptops. When Kieran Mullen, OU physics professor, noticed that students’ laptop usage was a distraction during his lectures, he planned a scene to get students to pay attention. During a general physics for engineering majors class Monday, Mullen placed a student’s decoy, non-functioning laptop into a plastic container and poured liquid nitrogen on it. “He said: ‘this is just liquid nitrogen, so it alone won’t hurt the computer. But this will’,” said Lindsey Brinkworth, University College freshman. “Then he threw it to the ground and told him to have IT fix it.” Since the classroom display, various students have considered bringing their laptops to a lecture session as a group to see Mullen’s reaction, Brinkworth said.