Fishing in liquid nitrogen

So the other day I happened to have one of the funniest moment in the lab I could possibly conceive.  A lot of our experiment recently have involved fluorescent dyes that require us to work in the dark.  We try to keep our samples as cold as possible and when we are done with them (ready to store them for an extended period of time) we flash freeze them in liquid nitrogen.  This is done by dipping a ladel in a large tank of liquid nitrogen and then dropping the small containers into the ladel.  Sounds easy enough right?  Well try doing it in the dark with containers that like to stick to your gloves!  Anyway, I dropped two of three containers into the large tank of liquid nitrogen which instantly disappeared out of site.  The third container was in the ladel but when I tried to pour out some of the liquid nitrogen the container flew out and landed in the tank as well.  For a few minutes I blindly tried to scoop up the samples.  Naturally to no avail.  I even got fancy and tried to create a vortex by moving the ladel around in a circle.  Still to no avail.  I gave up.....for the time.  As many of you know liquid nitrogen tends to evaporate quite quickly so I had to close the tank up as soon as possible.  A few hours later I came back with a co-worker.

Inside this tank of liquid nitrogen are 6 racks of square boxes, each containing several samples for various experiments.  We got the idea that if we removed all of them we could see more clearly.  We also turned on the lights.  As we removed all the racks a great deal of mist/fog formed at the opening.  From experience I learned that if you put one rack back in the fog goes away (not sure why).  Anyway, I put a rack back in and again began to create a vortex, this time using the rack.   It was much easier to create a vortex this way and soon I could a great deal of movement as well as feel the pull of a circular current.  My co-worker was handed the ladel.  As a sample floated into sight briefly he would attempt scoop it up with the ladel.  After a few minutes we were finally able to fish them all out.  Naturally we turned off the lights as soon as possible and covered them up so we could return the racks with the light on.  If nothing else it left us with huge grins and a funny story.  It became the day we went fishing in liquid nitrogen.