• Question: Have you ever been injured in one of your experiments?

    Asked by fudgepip to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 17 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Fudgepip,
      No thankfully everyone has escaped unharmed!
      I’ve injured myself a few times on fieldwork, but nothing serious.

      Fingers crossed it stays that way!
      Eoin

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Fudgepip

      Great name! Thank goodness no. Mind you, almost all of what we do in cell biology is fairly low risk, but we have quite a bit of electrical equipment and plenty of toxic chemicals so we do have to be careful.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      hi fudgepip, good name by the way!
      i have been a little electrocuted by experiments i have done in the past. These used very high voltages (about 5000 volts (compared to 240Volts in a three pin plug)). A wire was put in wrong, and i got a shock. It wasn’t that strong though – but this was because of the low currents i use. The current in a nomral plug is much stronger.
      It wasn’t very pleasant!!
      Please please do not mess with high voltages and plugs!! it is extemely dangerous!

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      No, I haven’t. About 30 years ago, someone in the US did accidentally infect themselves with malaria, which was lucky for us, because noone knew that kind of malaria parasite could infect humans until it happened! They were fine, cured themselves with drugs, although they let the infection run a while to see what happened – a real scientist ;).

      In our lab we work with deadly malaria parasites, but take a huge amount of care to make sure noone is injured – there are no sharp objects in the lab, for example.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      A few times! Mostly because I was doing something silly. For instance I received a chemical burn when I handled hydrochloric acid without wearing gloves (that stung, don’t try it at home!) I’ve also burnt my hands on dry ice – this is frozen CO2, it is so cold it causes burns when it touches the skin. So have fun in the lab, but be cautious!

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