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Asked by anon-294824 to Christopher on 18 May 2021.
Question: Has your experiments ever been dangerous?
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Christopher Todd answered on 18 May 2021: last edited 18 May 2021 1:00 pm
A lot of the experiments we perform use dangerous chemicals (many can cause cancer or chemical burns), however we wear protective equipment like gloves, safety glasses, and labcoats to protect ourselves and keep us safe in the lab.
A big part of our job is learning how to do all our experiments as safely as possible.
Some of my most dangerous experiments however have been working with animals, in particular I did some marine biology around coral sea snakes which are very venomous, but thankfully I was working alongside some experts who helped keep me safe.
Comments
Emma commented on :
Genetically modifying things is always dangerous that’s why we have to do risk assessments and get permission before doing so. Imagine if a genetically modified organism escaped into the natural world, that might create all kinds of trouble!
Jennifer commented on :
I work at a nuclear reactor so we have lots of radioactive stuff around. Because of this when we go and do our experiments we have to wear two dosimeters to make sure we don’t get harmed by the radiation, and these get analysed every month and the results sent to our Doctor who keeps his eye on it. But everything is really safe, I think the chemistry lab is way more dangerous and I have never been able to trust an acid!
Edward commented on :
Had a V12 diesel engine blow up on me once. It had something called thermal runaway. We were doing experiments with vibration sensors to detect funny noises within the engine that could indicate a fault.
However, the engine was very old and the air filter was partially blocked. The whine of the engine got louder and lounder and the mechanics tried to shut it off but couldn’t. So they ordered everyone to run and it went bang. Two cylinders on the engine popped and chunks of metal as big as your head landed on the floor. Flames, 20 feet high from the engine. Fortunately they got it all under control quite quickly.
It was quite scary really, but the best thing was our data collection equipment was fine! We captured the whole event! If you search for ‘diesel engine thermal runaway’ on youtube, you can see videos of what it could look like.