Laboratory Disaster Stories

Do you need some good reasons to wear your lab goggles?  Check out the Lab Horror Stories thread on Reddit.

Image via Wikipedia

 Here's one short and sweet example from an organic chemistry lab:

When I was in organic lab, my TA closed my heating reaction flask a little too tightly. It blew up. I pulled three pieces of glass out of my forehead right above my right eyebrow. The stopper hit my partner in the head. We lived long enough for the department to let us graduate.

Yay for goggles!

For educational and entertainment purposes only, please don't do any of these things yourself.


Link from Boingboing:
Or does it explode?: Reddit collection of laboratory disaster stories - Boing Boing

A Timely Video for Lab Day: Safety Song

Made by some UC Berkeley Grad students. See more of their work at The Sounds of Science.

via Safety Song: musical number about lab safety - Boing Boing

Fires spread FAST!

A couple of minutes into this video they start a fire in a simulated dorm room to show how quickly a fire can spread. This is really impressive, and a little scary.

A good reason to make sure your fire alarm is working, and pay attention when it goes off.

When I was a post doc, the house next door to us burned down late at night in the middle of winter - it was frightening how quickly it happened. We were lucky it didn't spread to our house, in the middle of Pittsburgh the houses are very close together.

Thanks to Debbie Decker on the DCHAS-L list.

Staying Safe Even When You Aren't in Lab

With the start of the school year, I spent a lot of time in Lab last week discussing safety.   Perhaps the first rule of being safe in the lab is to pay attention to what is going on around you, and that is true no matter what your situation.

Like the author of this article, I have studied karate.  I've been fortunate - the last time I was in a fight was eighth grade (long before I started taking karate), and I didn't start that fight.  I don't know if my martial arts training has had anything to do with it. It did help me feel a little more comfortable with myself, and self-confidence will make you less of a potential target of people with bad intentions.

How to Recognize Imminent Danger: 7 Essential Safety Rules - Stepcase Lifehack