• Question: Have you ever burnt any body parts whilst doing a experiment?

    Asked by anon-197683 to Sonal, Rosanna, Matthew, Marleen, Dan, Atreya on 1 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by anon-197973.
    • Photo: Dan Porter

      Dan Porter answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      Once while transferring liquid Helium (which is a liquid at -270C, or 4 degrees above absolute zero) from one big container to another (a very delicate task!), I accidentally put my hand in the wrong place when a seal broke and my hand took a blast of super cold helium gas!

      Turns out super cold gas burns you in pretty much the same was as hot gas, like steam from a kettle, and the solution is… wait for it… running the burn under a cold tap! Thankfully it wasn’t too bad a burn and it disappeared after a few weeks.

    • Photo: Marleen Wilde

      Marleen Wilde answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      Fortunately I could avoid so far getting burned. But of course, when you work in a lab you take precautions to prevent it as best as possible. Wearing a lab coat, safety goggles, gloves etc are there to protect you and usually every lab has measures in place to keep the risk of burning as low as possible.

    • Photo: Matthew Selwood

      Matthew Selwood answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      Thankfully not, but I came far too close once when I had a chemistry reaction at too hot a temperature and exploded the flask. Luckily I used the precautions and it only hit the inside of the fume cabinet. Always respect the health and safety of the lab you work in – makes for boring stories, but a lack of burns and death!

Comments

  • Photo: Srinath

    Srinath commented on :

    Great question! As a biologist / lab scientist, I used to have to transfer samples to a deep freezer stored at -80C. Once someone moved some of my samples and pushed them all the way to the back of the freezer and I had to literally crawl inside it to get the samples out. I didnt realize it when I was in there, but when I came out, one of my colleagues noticed I had burns all over the exposed parts of my body – my cheeks, my neck, my arms that were not covered in lab coat! Well it was more of a frost bite than a burn but I can tell you – it burns like crazy!!!